Beyond the Himalayas : a story of travel and adventure in the wilds of Thibet

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BEYOND
THE HIMALAYAS.

A STORY OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE IN
THE WILDS OF THIBET.

BY

JOHN GEDDIE,

AUTHOR OF "the LAKE REGIONS OP CENTRAL AFRICA.'
ETC. ETC.

"JViTH Illustrations.

T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK.
1884.

'^VtfUL

HE problem of opening up an overland route
from the Ganges to the Yang-tze — a subject
which has long piqued and baffled the curiosity
of their seniors — ought to have some attrac-
tion for the imagination of young people, if, as formerly,
they take delight in wandering among strange and wild
scenes, and in encountering manifold obstacles and dan-
gers. Many have sought of late years to climb over
the division-wall between the two crowded Eastern
worlds of India and China, — the trader, to find a
new market for his wares ; the explorer, in search
of a whole nest of " Chinese puzzles" regarding the
courses of giant rivers and mountain chains ; and the
missionary, in pursuit of his self-denying labours. Only
at one point, however, and by a roundabout way, has
the journey been accomplished. This is not wonderful,
when we reflect that the traveller in these countries
must run the gauntlet of savage mountain tribes, jealous

71 PREFACE.

Chinese officials, and fanatical Thibetan lamas, in addition
to surmounting the extraordinary natural difficulties of
crossing the frayed-out ends of the Himalayas that
interpose between the Assam frontier and China proper.
The surface of this unexplored region is wrinkled up
into deep folds, like the hide of a rhinoceros ; and down
these furrows five rivers of the first rank are known
to flow, though their channels have never been traced
throughout. Their sources are in the most remote
nooks of the table-land of Thibet, and their waters
find an outlet at points so far apart as Calcutta and
Shanghai. But here for a space their main courses are
drawn together within a narrow compass, resembling, to
use the expression of Colonel Yule, the learned editor
of " Marco Polo," " the fascis of thunderbolts in the
clutch of Jove, or the parallel lines of railway at Clap-
ham Junction." It is over this, the most difficult bit of
"cross country" perhaps in the world, that Bob Brown
seeks to lead the reader ; and as there is no authentic
record of the same line of country having been traversed,
it is impossible to say how nearly his narrative will be
found to agree with facts. At the same time the scenery
and manners described resemble what might be expected
from the relations of the distinguished French and
English explorers — Hue, Carne, Cooper, Margary, Baber,
Gill, and others — who have penetrated into South-
western China and Thibet.

@rontcntj

-♦♦-

I. "mysteries,"

II. THE JOUBNEY INTO THE HILLS,
III. THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK, ...
IV. THE IRON WALL, ...
V. UPS AND DOWNS, ...
VI. THE VALLEY OP THE SHADOW,
VII. YAKS AND LAMAS, ...
VIII. ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS,
IX. A HAVEN OF REST,

X. AMONG THE PIGTAILS,
XI. PERILS BY LAND, ...
XII. PERILS BY WATER, ...
Xin. SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES,
XrV. A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM,
XV. A HALT IN A PAGODA,
XVI. A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST,
XVn. THE LOST CITY,
XVIII. THE GREAT SAPPHIRE,
XIX. LOST,
XX. FOUND,

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283
244

BEYOND THE HIMALAYAS.

CHAPTER I.

"MYSTERIES.'

WONDER what lies beyond ?"

We were sitting, a group of four
Europeans, in the veranda of a bunga-
low into which an Indian sunset was shining. The
scene was intensely tropical and Eastern. Climbing
plants twined up the trellis -work of the veranda,
festooning the pillars with masses of broad green leaves,
starred with brilliant purple and scarlet flowers. In
the garden beyond were clumps of foliage and blossom
of types which " at home" you are accustomed to see
only in a conservatory. But here, instead of the
dwarfed and drooping exotics that pine and grow
pale in exile, the plants had a free, vigorous growth
that showed that they were breathing native air. It

10

was like the difference, in fact, between a collection
of wild animals cooped up in a menagerie and the same
creatures roaming free in their forest haunts. Fruits,
too, some of them familiar, but many of them strange
and rare, shone out temptingly from amid the dusk of the
leaves like great golden orbs, or in clusters. The huge,
clumsy form of an elephant could be descried moving
up one of the avenues towards the house, his pendulous
trunk swinging to and fro in unison with his deliberate
step, and only occasionally vouchsafing a discontented
grunt in reply to the appeals of the mahout to increase
his speed. A native gardener, dressed, like the elephant
driver, in white calico, which made a striking contrast
with his dusky face, was approaching in an equally
leisurely manner, bearing on his shoulders the hoes and
other tools with which he had been trimming the walks.
Other black attendants were preparing the hookahs for
the last evening smoke, and removing the cups from
which we had been drinking a fragrant draught of tea ;
while in the large chamber behind, on the other side of
the green jalousies, the lamps were being lighted.

All this spoke unmistakably of Hindostan.

But looking away from the house, over the wide
prospect that the veranda commanded, there were
features in the landscape that would have struck an
Anglo-Indian as not familiar in Indian scenery. A long
hill-slope stretched down in front of us, covered with

" MYSTERIES." 11

dark masses of virgin forest, between which were wide
clearings, planted with short, trimly-kept shrubs, that a
practised eye might have recognized to be young tea-
trees. At a distance of a mile and a half, or rather
more, a great river flowed through the valley in many
channels, separated from each other by islands densely
covered with sal-trees, bamboos, and reeds, and broad
belts of the same vegetation bounded the two shores.
Our bungalow looked partly across and partly up the
stream, on the other side of which wood-covered hills
rose peak behind peak, with deep ravines seaming their
sides, and dark valleys winding between their folds,
until their colours and shapes seemed to melt into those
of the array of clouds attending upon the sun, who was
about to set behind them. How shall I describe the
splendours of that tropical evening — the gorgeous rich-
ness and the harmony of the piled-up masses of vapour,
the soft glow of the unfathomable depths of rosy, pearly,
and cream - coloured sky that lay between, and the
flood of level light that poured across the mountains
from the descending sun ? It is indescribable ; one
must see such a picture with his own eyes in order
to have a conception of its beauty. The shadows were
already falling on the river : some figures that we
had been watching as they moved through the reeds
might be a group of tame buffaloes that had not
yet been driven home ; or a troop of wild cattle

12 " MYSTERIES."

taking possession of one of their island strongholds ;
or it might even be native boatmen punting their way
up one of the narrow creeks, so dim had their outlines
become.

The light, however, struck on another great range
of mountains on the hither side of the stream, whose
purple sides rose like a mysterious and impassable wall
on our extreme right. It was in the direction of this
range that the speaker's eyes were turned as he pro-
nounced the words that stand at the opening of the
chapter. I have to introduce him first, as by far the
most important personage in this narrative. You had
only to glance at Dr. Roland to see that he was no
ordinary man either in physique or intellect. At least
that is what I felt when I first set eyes on him ; and
my " chum," Tom Wilson, felt exactly the same. His
face and neck had been burned a ruddy brown by
exposure to many a blazing sun, and deep study had
ploughed one or two wrinkles in his broad brow, though
he was still a man under middle age. There was no
trace of the fatigue and hardships he had endured in
travelling all over the globe, in his tall, powerful figure.
His eye had none of the supercilious or abstracted ex-
pression that repels one in some men of learning ; it
was bright and kindly, and alert like his step. I shall
not describe his features in detail, and need only say
that his face inspired you from the first with con-

" mysteries/' 13

fidence and respect, and that you afterwards learned
to love it. I know that wken we heard — my friend
Tom and I — that so great a man was coming to visit
us, we felt a great awe of him. We never entirely
lost that awe, but it soon became merged in the strong
personal attachment which we learned to entertain for
him.

He had come to spend a few weeks with his old
friend Mr. Marshall, who had settled in the most remote
district of Upper Assam, and with whom Tom Wilson
and your humble servant — I forgot to introduce myself
as Robert, or, as my familiar acquaintances choose to
call me. Bob Brown — had been living for nearly a year,
learning the business of tea-planting. The doctor brought,
along with his inseparable negro servant Hannibal, whom
he had rescued from a dismal swamp in Louisiana where
the poor hunted fellow had found shelter from a brutal
slave-master, a wonderful collection of explorers' appa-
ratus— quadrants, chronometers, thermometers, aneroids,
botanical cases, collecting boxes, and I know not what
else ; besides rifles and other instruments of the chase, —
for his love of sport was only second to his love of
science. A wing of the bungalow was set apart for his
use, and over it Hannibal lay in watch like a dragon ; but
we were often of an evening privileged to enter the doctor's
sanctum, and looked on with breathless interest while he
made experiments or classified the plants and animals he

14 " MYSTEKTES."

had secured during his day's tramp, good - naturedly
making for our benefit a running commentary on the
habits and peculiarities of the beetles, spiders, and ants
that he tenderly spitted on pins, and of the mosses,
lichens, orchids, and ferns that he carefully spread out
and pressed to death in the interests of science. Some-
times, too, we had had the treat of accompanying him on
his sporting excursions to the hills or in the jungles along
the river side, and had under his eye bowled over many
a head of forest game, such as wild pig and deer, though
our teacher in the art had hitherto taken the post of
danger, and had reserved to his own gun the tigers,
buffaloes, rhinoceroses, elephants, and bears that had
come in our way.

It was not strange that in the circumstances we had
come to regard Dr. Roland with enthusiastic admiration ;
that there was nothing that we would not have done to
show our devotion to him, and that, in our view, there
was scarcely anything that he did not know as familiarly
as the alphabet. It was therefore with some surprise
as well as curiosity that we watched him gazing away
towards those eastern hills, with a baffled and eager air,
and heard him express his " wonder" as to what was on
the other side.

" Can you not tell us, then, sir," said Tom, who was
the first to break the silence, " what is beyond that big
wall ?"

" MYSTERIES. 15

" Mystery," said the doctor, dropping his voice to a
stage whisper, but looking all the while more than half
serious, " Do you know, young fellows," he continued,
" that fate has placed you in the one nook of the
inhabitable earth around which a little romance still
lingers ? And yet you can find nothing more heroic to
do than killing chickens." (This was a bantering refer-
ence to an exploit of mine on the previous day, when I
had shot a fowl, that had strayed away to the edge of
the plantation, in mistake for a pheasant.) " There is
mystery brooding all about you, except along the valley
there by which you came up hither from Calcutta.
Those heights across the river, behind which the sun is
just about to hide himself, are, as you know, the foot-
hills of the great Himalaya. Can any of you tell me
the secrets of their recesses ? No ; neither then can I.
That huge mountain range stretches from here to
Afghanistan ; nay, as I could show you, to the Caucasus
and the Crimea. There is nothing like it in the world
for height and grandeur. Its base rises directly from
the hot steaming plains of India, and ascends tier
above tier like a vast staircase of mountains till it
carries you to glittering heights, thousands of feet
above the line of perpetual snow, that will never be
trodden by man. If you climb up by one of the passes,
until your head swims and you catch your breath in
short gasps by reason of the rarity of the air, you will

13 " MYSTERIES."

find that there is, comparatively speaking, no slope to
descend."

" Then, has the Himalaya only one side ?" I asked.

" Yes, Bob ; and on the top is Thibet and the Roof of
the World."

" And what happens to you after you get on the
roof r

" You remember what happened to the Duke of York
and his ten thousand men ?" said Mr. Marshall, smiling.
" He marched them up a hill, and marched them down
again. I wouldn't advise you, Master Bob, to attempt
that climb. The Thibetans might take a fancy not to
let you away at all, but nail you up on the frontier as
a warning to other trespassers, as a gamekeeper does a
weasel."

" Why should they make such a fuss about their
stupid country ?" said Tom in a tone of disgust. " I
never heard that there was anything very pretty to be
seen there."

. " It is the Holy Land of one of the great religions of
the world, my boy," said the doctor. " It is made sacred
by being the residence of the Grand Lama, the living
Buddha, and must be kept pure from the profane feet
of unbelievers, who might besides take a fancy to occupy
the country. They have guarded their frontiers well.
I believe that you could count on the fingers of one
hand all the Europeans who have penetrated to the

" MYSTERIES. 17

heart of Thibet. I think it is very foolish policy, how-
ever. It is a cold, wild, and barren region. If the
lamas opened their doors to strangers, they would soon
satisfy their curiosity and go away. But as long as
they keep the world waiting outside, the world will
want to get in. But leaving that matter aside, look at
that great river there, the Bramaputra, coming full-
grown from the hills, with no fountain-head that any
one knows of. Isn't that a mystery ? There is no
stream of its size about which there is so much con-
jecture."

" I thought the maps made it out to be the Sanpoo,"
said Tom Wilson meekly,

" You mustn't pin your faith to all you find in maps,"
the doctor replied. " Some of the wildest and most
fanciful romances extant are to be found in these lines
of mountain ranges, rivers, and deserts which the geo-
graphers trace for you. In this case they have heard
of a stream that flows through the highlands of Thibet,
and then they perceive a flood of waters issuing from
the hills to meet the Ganges. The river of the cold,
bare highlands above is no more like the tropical
stream below there than the hard-featured Thibetan is
like the mild Hindu ; and they run in opposite directions.
But the people that make the maps don't know whither
the one goes, nor from whence the other comes — "

" And so," interrupted Mr. Marshall, " they join the
fooo) 2

18 " MYSTERIES.

head of the first to the tail of the second, and construct
a monster like the mermaid that the Yankee showman
made out of a monkey and a fish. But come now,
doctor, what better splice could you make yourself than
these yarning map-makers ?"

"I could not do a bit better," said our sage, shaking
his head. " I daresay they are right. But just think
what might happen in that mysterious gap. Why, the
Sanpoo must fall over a score of precipices, cut all sorts
of strange capers, and be terribly shaken and jumbled
before it becomes the Bramaputra. What is to hinder
it from diving wholly underground, letting this river
flow over the top of it, then popping up on the other
side and going off to join the Irrawady ?

" Come, come, my friend," said Mr. Marshall, laughing;
" this beats the maps hollow as a fiction."

"It is not so utterly impossible as you fancy," re-
sponded Dr. Roland gravely. " All sorts of queer things
happen up there with the rivers. They have a trick of
disappearing in the earth, and coming to the surface
again miles and miles away, after traversing ' caverns
measureless to man,' like Alph, the Sacred River that
ran by the palace of the great Kublai Khan. By the
way, youngsters," he went on, suddenly turning to us,
" you have read Marco Polo's travels of course ? "

" No," I answered shamefacedly.

Tom plucked up a little courage on the strength of

" MYSTERIES." 19

his having once " ground up " the history of the medi-
eval traveller as an examination subject, and, of course,
had long ago forgotten it; so he was beginning, —
" Wasn't that the old Venetian bloke that — "

" Please don't call Marco Polo a ' bloke,' " broke in the
doctor sternly ; " indeed, I am not sure that it is proper
to describe any one by that title. But the great ones
of the earth at least must be spoken of with respect;
and you would never talk of Christopher Columbus, or
Vasco da Gama, or David Livingstone, as a ' bloke.*
Brave old Marco is one of the same glorious band ; and
I cannot fancy anything more entrancing to young
fellows like you, or to your elders either, than the story
of his marvellous journey across Asia, if only you put
your head into what you read, as, of course, every one
should, and try to see with your ' mind's eye ' what he
describes in his quaint language. What wild, unfre-
quented regions he carries you into ! What giddy
heights you scale, and what abysses you cross, from the
time that you land with the needy soldier of fortune on
the shores of Asia Minor until you see him return, loaded
with Tartar wealth and honours, to his native city. You
are brought by the cities of Samarcand and Balkh, over
the Pamir steppe, and across deserts of sand and stones
and salt by a route that no Western traveller has since
been able to follow ; and you hear strange tidings by the
way of the Old Man of the Mountain, of Prester John, of

20 " MYSTERIES.

Gog and Magog, of wild camels and hairy oxen, of mines
of sapphire, jasper, and chalcedony, and of the mysterious
voices that haunt the Wilderness of Lob. Then when you
reach the Court of the Grand Khan, what barbaric riches
and splendour you witness within and without the royal
palace, whose walls are thirty-two miles in circuit, — the
great hall where the fierce Tartar warriors, who had
perhaps fought their way across the world from Japan
to Germany, drank wine out of flagons of gold; the
hunting parties that set out in chase of the lion and
smaller game, with falcons and leashes of leopards and
lynxes; and the splendid stud of milk-white horses
from which the chargers of the princes were chosen.
After that you pass on through exceeding rich, powerful,
and magnificent cities, and across broad and noble
rivers — "

" Stop, stop ! " cried Mr. Marshall. " See how you are
making the eyes of these lads sparkle with your stories
of worthy Signor Polo's travels ! They will be packing
their bundles and setting out in quest of his river with
sands of gold dust, and perhaps will fall into the jaws
of that wonderful serpent of his with claws like a tiger
and glaring eyes ' bigger than a f ourpenny loaf.' Tell
us rather about your plan for your own trip up the
moimtains next week."

" I was just coming to that," said the doctor. " Marco's
River of Gold Sands is on the other side of these moun-

" MYSTERIES. 21

tains. If we could ' interview ' him, I daresay he could
tell us more of the country beyond than any one knows
to-day, for we have learned very little in the six hun-
dred years since he wandered through China. I intend,
if I have time, to go as far up through the hills as pos-
sible, with the hope of seeing a little into the heart of
the mystery."

Tom and I exchanged eager glances. We had been
promised two or three weeks' holidays, and it was our
cherished hope that we would be allowed to spend them
with Dr. Eoland. You may be sure that when we heard
what his route was to be we became more than ever
ardent in our wish to accompany him.

" Where does the road lie over these hills ? " began
Tom.

" That is exactly the question," said the doctor, knit-
ting his brows musingly. " Nobody can say that there
is a road at all. Here we are within a comparatively
few miles of the confines of China, and we might, for all
we see or hear of it, be as many thousand leagues away.
There must be somewhere up there an *iron wall' of
division between India and China; and it has kept apart
five or six hundred millions of people — half the inhabi-
tants of the earth — down to this day. When they have
met either for trade or war, they have had to make a
vast circuit by Cabul and Kashgar, or some other round-
about road."

22

" Is it impassable, then, sir ? "

" I don't much believe either in ' impassable * or * im-
possible/ I daresay there is a way of clambering over
the obstacle if one could only hit it. I fancy that stork
there going home to roost knows the clue ; or if he is not
high-flier enough, some of the hill vultures could tell
you."

" What do you think one would find if he got over,
sir ?" I asked.

" Well, Bob, that lucky man would probably find a
deep valley, ending in a chasm with precipitous walls
and a river at the bottom — what they call in America
a canon; and if he managed to scramble down without
breaking his neck, and embarked on the stream, he
would be shot down cataracts and shot at by wild tribes
for many weeks, and at length find himself sailing down
the Irrawady, past the Peacock Palace of Mandalay, the
thousand temples of Pagham, and the Golden Pagoda of
Rangoon, to the sea."

" That would be a lucky man indeed," said Mr. Mar-
shall, laucjhinof.

" But if he despised following the river, and scaled
the range of mountains beyond," continued the doctor,
" he would come upon just such another ravine and
stream, and this would carry him a thousand miles and
more through a wild, untraversed back-country, amid
half-barbarous Shans and wholly savage Karens, — per-

23

haps past the mines of rubies and sapphires of the king
of Ava, — until he would find himself at the mouth of
the Salwen, in the British harbour of Moulmein, in the
Bay of Bengal."

" And suppose he despised the Salwen too, and skipped
over it — which is the only way I see of crossing it ? "
asked the master of the house.

"Then at a short distance, measured by space, but
terribly long in time, for it would carry him high up
among the clouds, he would find a third and still greater
river — the Mekong. And if he built for himself a bark
canoe, and his luck still clung to him, he would pass
amid scenes of incredible grandeur and terror, through
the very heart of Indo-China, emerging at last among
the French settlers in Saigon. If the Mekong itself
were not good enough for the attention of this
haughty explorer, he would only have to go a stage or
two further, and after another sojourn in the mountains
of Thibet, he might get afloat on the River of Golden
Sand, — the head-waters of the mighty Yang-tze-Kiang
itself, — and descend, past junks and joss-houses, pagodas
and porcelain towers, exchanging nods with mandarins
and bonzes, to the Pacific Ocean. So, instead of one
* iron wall,' there are four lines of ramparts at least, with
a deep trench between each, separating us from the
Flowery Land."

" May Tom and I go with you to the hills, sir ? " said

24

I, after a pause, looking appealingly from the doctor to
Mr. Marshall, Tom meanwhile seconding the request with
his eyes.

It was now the turn of the elders to exchange
glances.

" You would be of great use to me, boys, I admit,"
said the doctor gravely; "but the journey will be a
rough one and not without some danger. There have
been stories, you know, of the hill tribes being rest-
less. You would be away three weeks at least, and
I do not know that Mr. Marshall can spare you for
so long."

" Let us go inside and talk the matter over," said Mr.
Marshall. " It is already almost dark, and the dews are
beginning to fall."

When we were all seated round the table in the
bungalow, it was settled, after serious consideration, that
Tom and I should accompany Dr. Koland ; and we then
proceeded — or rather our elders proceeded, while we
listened eagerly — to discuss the arrangements for the
journey. It was long ere excitement would allow me to
fall asleep that night ; and when at length I dozed off, I
dreamed that I was Marco Polo, and that, mounted on a
shaggy yak, I was fleeing from a hideous dragon with
saucer eyes that chased me up steep hills and across
yawning gulfs, at the bottom of which I could hear
water gurgling and roaring through caverns, while the

"MYSTERIES. 25

crashes of the stones as they bumped from rock to rock
into the abyss sounded loudly in my ears. Awakening,
I found that my neighbour Tom, also suffering from
nightmare, was snorting violently in his sleep and
wildly beating the wall with his fists.

CHAPTER II

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS.

RIGHT and early one morning, a week after
the conversation recorded in last chapter, we
set out on our journey to the mountains.
So early was it that some of the stars had not faded
from the sky, and the fog had not yet cleared away
from the banks of the Bramaputra when we turned our
backs upon it and our faces towards the sunrise, begin-
ning to glimmer over these hills which we had come to
associate with all that is mystic and marvellous. Our
heavier luggage was packed upon the backs of two
elephants. One carried our tent, hammocks, and the
warm clothing which we expected to require on the cold
mountain-tops to which we were bound. Hannibal —
who would, I believe, have undertaken to drive a giraffe
or a hippopotamus in the service of his master — was in
charge of the other huge beast (Ghenghiz by name), and
from his elevated seat glanced with an air of calm pride
at the cooking apparatus, the doctor's scientific instru-

THE JOUKNEY INTO THE HILLS. 27

ments, and the packages containing preserved meat,
cartridges, and spare rifles that were neatly arranged
behind him. Hannibal — or Han, as we were accustomed
to call him — would have made a capital " study in black
and white" for an artist. It is impossible to imagine
anything blacker than his skin or whiter than his newly-
washed cotton uniform, or than the whites of his eyes
and his rows of shining teeth, as he grinned delightedly
in acknowledgment of a word of praise which the doctor
gave him for his arrangements. The only neutral tint
about him was his hair (his wool rather), which was
becoming grizzled with age ; but though past his youth,
Han was still possessed of enormous strength. He was
a faithful, honest fellow, in whom we were not long in
discovering a thousand good qualities that we had not
expected. He was kind enough to take a patronizing
interest in us youngsters, though we suspected all the
time that he would have little hesitation in cooking
either of us for his master's breakfast, if Dr. Roland
expressed the slightest wish in that direction. The
three white members of our party were mounted on
stout hill ponies ; and behind us, in Indian file, came
about a dozen Assamese natives, who were to act partly
as porters and partly as guides and beaters of game.
Mr. Marshall accompanied us a little distance on our
way, and we parted from him with warm hand-shakes,
and many admonitions on his side to be wary and

28 THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS.

careful of ourselves, and not to overstay long our
time.

I am not going to narrate in detail our experiences in
the earlier part of the journey, having perhaps already
spent too much time in preliminary description, and
having much more exciting events to tell of further on.
We tried to cover as much ground as possible in the
day's march. We were only " provisioned " for three
weeks or a month ; and it was our desire to get as far
into the mountains as possible, and to return within that
time. We had little time, therefore, for sport; but
occasionally we got a shot at a deer, and twice we
thought we saw the striped yellow coat of a tiger slink-
ing through the jungle. On one occasion we suddenly
came upon a small herd of wild elephants shampooing
one another in a pool in the river ; but immediately they
caught sight of us they trumpeted loudly, scrambled up
the bank, and were crashing their way through the
bamboos before we could unsling our rifles and take aim.
When we pitched our tent and " went into camp" in the
evening, some of us generally turned out with rod and
line, and in half an hour would bring in a basket of fine
trout, which under Hannibal's skilful hands made a
capital addition to our fare. The track we followed for
the first few days was one well marked by the feet of
elephants, cattle, and natives, generally leading through
thick scrub and forest, and keeping near to the banks of

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS. 29

the stream that flowed down to the Bramaputra.
Often our eyes were unable to penetrate more than a
few yards into the depths of the forest, so dense and
matted was the wall of trunks and branches woven
together by creepers of every size that rose on either
side ; while overhead the leaves met so closely as almost
to shut out the light of the sun even at mid-day. Though
the air in these leafy tunnels was close and damp, we
were glad to escape the hot glare of the sun that we
encountered as soon as we reached the open. We could
then see steep rocky banks hemming in the stream we
were ascending, and gradually drawing nearer and be-
coming more precipitous as we advanced. They were
still covered with vegetation to the summits; but ahead
of us we could see bare and jagged peaks coming into
sight, and at night a breeze swept down the valley that
felt as if it had blown over snow, and made us glad of
the shelter of our tent and blankets. Every mile we
advanced the mountains seemed to wrap us more closely
in their folds, to take more strange and distorted shapes,
and to look down more frowningly on us as trespassers
in their domain.

On the sixth day after we had left our bungalow at
Poolongyan, we struck off" the path we had hitherto
been following, and took a more direct cut into the
mountains, by a side valley on our right. Dr. Roland,
who had carefully studied the lines of the hills and the

30 THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS.

sketches and accounts of previous travellers, and cross-
questioned the native guides, had come to the conclusion
that it was in this direction, if anywhere, that a depres-
sion in the great snowy range we were in quest of would
be found. It was now, however, that the real difficulties
of the march began. Regular path there was none,
though now and then we could take advantage of well-
marked lanes ploughed through the mass of juHgle by
the heavy bodies of elephants and rhinoceroses, and here
and there could trace narrow trails that had apparently
been followed by the wild native tribes in their hunting
or marauding excursions. We had to send our own
elephants to the front to beat down a track through the
undergrowth, and our guides had to ply their knives
vigorously upon the tough bamboos, lianas, and reeds
before we could penetrate the thickets. Often we were
compelled to take to the bed of the stream, in which,
fortunately, as the dry season had now fairly set in,
there was comparatively little water ; and elephants,
horses, and men scrambled and stumbled over the
slippery boulders and ledges in the most uncomfortable
way. It was wonderful to see the care and surefooted-
ness of our sagacious beasts as they picked their way
from rock to rock ; but sometimes they would slip down
into the stream, and the riders were fortunate if they
escaped without bruises, in addition to a wetting.
Hannibal was fain to descend from his high station on

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS. 81

his elephant's neck, where he was jolted about and torn
and lashed with thorns and briers more than he liked,
and to pursue the way on foot. For Dr. Roland, how-
ever, this part of the journey yielded a rich harvest.
His geologist's hammer was constantly in requisition,
chipping fragments of the rock, and his note-book, in
which he entered the results of his researches, seemed to
be seldom long out of his hands. We, of course, flung
ourselves with extraordinary ardour into the task of
assisting him in the discovery of new plants, insects, and
birds. We were so successful, and gained so much praise
from our patron, that Hannibal, who appeared to see his
scientific functions invaded, while he was doomed to the
vulgar duty of looking after the baggage, began to
regard us with disdain and perhaps a spice of jealousy.
On the whole, however, we were all in high spirits and
good-humour. Everything had hitherto gone as smoothly
as could be expected, and we had made such good pro-
gress that we were already beyond the limits reached by
any previous explorer.

The little valley we had been ascending was gradually
changing to a gorge. Where we could get a glimpse of
the hills above us, we could see great cliffs towering up
to meet the sky, with trees and shrubs clinging to the
crannies, and trailing plants hanging over the edge of
the cliffs and shadinor them as with a g-reen veil : while
overhead huge naked boulders were piled one above

32 THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS.

another, and appeared only to wait the first breath of
wind to fall crashing into the valley. In front we could
see where the perpendicular walls closed in, leaving only
a narrow passage between them, and ahead we could
hear the sound of falling waters. Before reaching the
waterfall, however, we had to traverse a sort of canal,
where the stream had an almost imperceptible flow
between marshy banks covered with dense jungle and
forest trees that interlaced their branches and formed a
leafy arcade overhead. Under this gloomy archway,
through which the sun only here and there shot down a
pencil of light, we waded for more than half a mile with
the water nearly to our armpits. The doctor led the
van, holding aloft his rifle and revolver to save them
from the wet, and cautiously piloting the way, which
was full of boulders, deep miry holes, trunks, limbs, and
roots of trees, and other obstacles. Behind him came
the mahout and one of the elephants and the line of
porters, bravely struggling with their loads through the
mud ; while Tom and I, leading the ponies, brought up
the rear, along with Hannibal and his big charge, both
of them in rather cross temper, owing to a difference of
opinion as to the rate of progress which it was proper
for an elephant to make in the circumstances. The
worthy old negro's ill-humour was not removed by the
unmerciful chaff" to which we subjected him, and a little
incident occurred that threatened further to upset him.

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS. 33

A resplendent butterfly of a new species, with wings
four or five inches across, and all ablaze with glorious
shades of blue, purple, and crimson, issued from the
thicket, and after fluttering round the head of the
doctor, who could only vainly shake his revolver at it,
it passed on to one after another of the company, finally
concentrating its attention on Hannibal, and apparently
taking a special delight in parading its beauties within
a foot or two of his nose.

"Aha!" said our black friend, wagging his head
savagely and showing his teeth like a cat that sees a
sparrow from behind a pane of glass, " you t'ink you can
do what you like, do you? Hey! You jes' come a little
nearah, will you ?"

The butterfly, responding to the sarcastic invitation,
at that moment danced a few inches closer to Hannibal's
face, and by a dexterous sweep of his hand he held the
prize in his fingers. Instantly the negro's ill-humour,
which was never of long continuance, was appeased, and
for the rest of the day he could scarcely conceal the
elation he felt. He got his share of the too marked
attentions of other tribes of insects — mosquitoes, ants,
sand-flies, and the rest — that stung us on the wing or
dropped on us from the trees ; but he seemed scarcely
to mind them. There was not one of us, however, who
W£Ls not glad enough to emerge again from this damp
and dark tunnel into the clear light of day, close beneath

(690) 3

34 THE JOUENEY INTO THE HILLS.

the cascade which we had heard gradually sounding
louder in our ears.

We were a forlorn company when at length we came
to a halt at the foot of the falls. Our hands and faces
were torn with thorns and swollen with the stings and
bites of our insect tormentors, and our clothes had gaping
rents here and there, besides being soaked with water
and plastered with mud from the waist down. Hanni-
bal, particularly, cut a bedraggled figure, in melancholy
contrast to the spruce and dandified air he assumed
before his bright plumage had been drawn through the
mire. Tired and wet as we were, hunger had the upper
hand of fatigue, and we set to work with a will in
helping our cook to get ready our meal — a mess of rice,
with preserved meat sandwiches and some excellent cray-
fish, or " fresh-water lobsters," as we called them, that
we had fished up from the stream, added to a smoking
cup of tea.

It was a wild scene that environed us as we sat
around a great slab of rock, doing ample justice to our
fare. Towering granite cliffs rose almost sheer above
us to a height of six or seven hundred feet. Piled-up
fragments of rock lay around their base and encumbered
the bed of the stream, and were overgrown with an
extraordinary variety of forest and water plants, among
which beautiful ferns and long streaming mosses predom-
inated. On the summit of the crags, also, broken and

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS. 35

splintered masses of stone were confusedly heaped, and
some of them seemed to lean over in the act of plunging
into the valley. We could make out dwarf shrubs cling-
ing to the clefts high up, and hiding behind the boulders,
plainly seeking shelter from the cold rude blasts that
blew on the plateau above. Just before us the walls of
the gorge approached each other within a distance of
thirty feet, and down a steep incline rushed the stream
in flying leaps and bounds, roaring and chafing over and
under the rocks in a line of foam, and falling into a deep
pool below. In its present shrunken condition the little
river did not nearly fill the space between the cliffs; but
in time of flood, as we could plainly see by the markings
of water high up the rocks, it must fill the whole channel
and thunder through the gap in a resistless torrent.

" What are we to do now, sir ? " inquired Tom of the
doctor. " We will not be able to get the elephants up
these rocks, will we ? "

" We must not only leave the elephants behind us," re-
plied our chief, " but also the ponies, if we are to go any
further. I am not disappointed about the elephants, as
I did not expect to be able to bring them so far.
Besides, another day with the care of Ghenghiz weighing
on his mind would be the death of Hannibal," glancing
slyly at that worthy, who shook his grizzled poll, but
looked much relieved. " While you hungry blades have
been kindling the fire and boiling the kettle, I have been

36 THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS.

clambering up the rocks at the fall. There is ' no
thoroughfare' that way for horses, and scarcely for foot-
passengers. But we have had some experience in
climbing trees, and there is a root there by which I
find you can hoist yourself up to the river-bed above.
I am not quite certain," said the doctor after a pause,
and speaking with great deliberation, "but I think I
could make out at the extreme end of the gorge, and
within a couple of days' march, the great ' divide ' of
which we are in search."

" Then shouldn't we push on at once ? " I broke in.

" Not quite so fast. Bob," said Dr. Roland, smiling at
my eagerness. "We have to settle first whether this
is not to be our turning-point. We can still spare two
or three days and be back at the bungalow by the time
appointed. But there is risk, I can see plainly, in
pushing on. What if one of the thunderstorms that
occasionally break on these hills at this season were to
come down ? We might be imprisoned in the mountain-
gully above for a week or more. It might take that
time before the flood would subside sufficiently to let us
escape by the fall ; and the sides of the gorge, so far as I
could observe, are so steep that you might as well think
of scaling a church spire. Then there are the hillmen.
If they discovered our movements, and chose to bar our
way, it would be more awkward even than the floods."

" But we have seen no natives since we crossed the

THE JOURNEY INTO THE HILLS. 37

frontier," we objected, "and those we met within the
border were quite quiet and peaceable."

"That sudden disappearance is the very thing that
puzzles and troubles me," replied our friend, speaking
gravely. " These wily rascals may have been watching
every step we have taken, though they have never
allowed us to catch a glimpse of them. Did you observe
that the little nat-houses we passed on our way had fresh
offerings of fruit and meat laid down to propitiate the
evil genii of the jungle and the mountains ? The hill-
men seldom take the trouble to do that unless some
raiding scheme or other mischief is afoot. Now that
we are so near the mountains, I think I will push on,
with Hannibal and two of the guides, and try to reach
the water-parting. But you, boys, must remain here ; or
better still, return with the elephants and ponies and the
rest of the party to the outlet of the stream, for camping
and pasturage. You may look for us in about a week."

The reader may fancy how terribly disappointing a
prospect this was for us, and how we urged the doctor
by every argument in our power to take us with him.
At length, after much hesitation, and bearing in mind
that the dangers were, after all, only conjectural, and
that we might be safer under his own eye than left
alone with the native attendants, he consented that we
should start with him next day to pursue the journey
up stream.

38 THE JOUENEY INTO THE HILLS.

" I wish you had spent your time, Tom, in teaching
your pony to climb trees, instead of standing on its hind
legs and begging for a biscuit," said the doctor, looking
wistfully at our clever little nags. " We shall have to
be the beasts of burden ourselves from this point. I
advise you to put on as much clothes as you can bear,
and Hannibal will show you how to pack your knap-
sacks to the best purpose. We must be in as tight
marching order as possible, but must have enough food
to keep the keen mountain hunger at bay for several
days."

CHAPTER III.

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

lONG before the sun had peeped over the walls
of the ravine our preparations for the march
were complete. In spite of the wetting of
the previous day, we felt quite fresh and fit
for travel, thanks partly to the delicious plunge we had
enjoyed in the pool immediately on awakening. The
critical eyes of the doctor and the " darkey" had super-
intended every detail of toilet and packing. Elephants,
ponies, and attendants stood marshalled, ready for depart-
ure to the rear when we had ascended the rocks at the
waterfall. Picking our way cautiously over the boulders,
wet and slippery with the spray from the cascade, and
clinging now to a tuft of grass or fern, now to a root,
overhanging branch, or knuckle of rock, we hoisted our-
selves up rather stiffly — for we had donned more clothes
than was as yet quite comfortable, and had each besides a
wallet and a gun slung to his shoulder — till at length we
stood on the topmost ledge. We raised a hearty cheer,

40 THE CLEFTS OF THE KOCK.

which was responded to from below ; and then each party
stepped out briskly, our late companions towards the
rendezvous down stream, and we into the unknown
heart of the hills.

It is impossible to conceive a more desolate and terrific
scene than the one on which our eyes were now turned.
A great chasm seemed to have been rent into the core of
the mountains, winding and zigzagging, now contracting
till it was less than a stone-throw across, and then ex-
panding a little, but with the sheer walls everywhere
throwing deep black shadows half-way across the gulf.
It seemed to be the gloomy portal to the retreat of the
Efreet who guarded the secret of these hills ; and it was
not strange in young explorers like Tom and myself, who
were introduced for the first time into the scenery of
this wild land of precipices and abysses, that for a second
or two our hearts sank with an involuntary feeling of
awe and terror. Above the cliffs that hemmed us in,
however, and far back behind the murky recesses of the
ravine, a high mountain-ridge could be plainly discerned,
running north-east and south-west, with the morning
sun gleaming on its snow-covered peaks, and throwing
shadows into its deep notches and hollows. We had no
doubt that it was the "Iron Wall" — the impassable
prolongation of the Patkoi Chain ; and it seemed not
more than fifteen or twenty miles distant.

The sight infused new spirit into us, and we tramped

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 41

on stoutly in spite of obstacles that met us at every
step. The bed of the stream was filled with huge blocks
of stone, worn smooth with the friction of water passing
over them, and piled one above another as if the giants
of the hills had been amusing themselves by trying to
fill up the chasm. Our progress was a process of crawl-
ing, leaping, sliding, and wading. Sometimes we would
be picking our way cautiously along a narrow ledge at
a dizzy height above the stream; at others endeavouring
to follow its banks by scrambling over the boulders, and
then again taking to the stream itself, which hurried
downhill in a continuous series of rapids and cataracts.
Great fissures seamed the sides of the cliiFs at intervals,
and side valleys opened up, more dark and forbidding
than the main gorge. A coarse wiry grass covered the
less steep slopes, and at a few spots there were patches
of jungle and forest. We peered anxiously into these
thickets, as well as up the branch glens, in search of
game or of possible enemies, but saw scarcely any trace
of life, human or otherwise. Winged game had dis-
appeared, and the only four-footed creatures we saw
were two or three Ovis Ammon, the wild mountain sheep,
splendid fellows with prodigious horns, that boimded
up the nearly perpendicular crags, and disappeared over
the sky-line too far off" for us to get a shot at them.
The only sport the ravine afforded was angling ; and a
dish of a curious, snouted, whiting-like fish afforded us

42 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

an excellent mid-day meal. We could no longer regale
ourselves with tropical fruits ; for we had left behind us
the sago-palm and the rubber-tree, the banyan and the
plantain, along with the tiger and the buffalo, in the low
valley beneath us, and the plants we now encountered
were those of more temperate regions, and chiefly pine-
trees not unlike our northern firs.

Still we held onward and upward, and privations and
difficulties were made amends for by seeing the snowy
range before us grow gradually nearer and clearer. When
we halted for the day, we calculated that we had
reduced its distance from us by at least one-half. A
recess in the rocky wall, with a platform in front com-
manding a view up and down the ravine, offered a
suitable camping-place for the night, and we turned in,
after duly setting a watch and kindling a huge fire,
satisfied on the whole with what we had done, and pre-
pared to enjoy a well-earned night's repose.

I think the fatigTies of the day must have been too
much for me, or the cutting breeze that blew down from
the snows, and made me shiver within my blanket, pre-
vented me from dropping off to sleep. At all events,
I could not compose myself to rest. I heard Dr. Roland
and one of the Assamese porters turn in, after having
passed the first watch, and Hannibal and our other native
follower take their places. The doctor was " dead beat"
— for he had been geologizing as well as marching all day

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 43

— and did not seem to notice that the two Assam men,
willing but superstitious fellows, lingered together for a
few moments and exchanged some hurried words. I
heard old Han lecturing his companion, with the air of
superiority that he always assumed in addressing coloured
men of other types than his own, on his ignorance and
want of manners.

" You remembah," he said, " a niggah like you ought
nevah to speak b'hind the sahib's back. You grumble
b'cause you have to climb ovah big stones, and carry
other big stones on your back, do you, hey ? You don't
know that Doctah Sahib " — the doctor's name with the
natives — " make dem all into rupees when he goes back
to Poolongyan. You 'fraid of the ' nats,' are you ?
Why, you fool, he could catch your biggest nat, and
cork him up in him small bottle" (this weis evidently
a blundering allusion to the doctor's splendid collection
of gnats and other insects of the same class which he
had made one of his specialities). " You jes' keep your
eyes well skinned, and mind your own business, will
you?"

Much more to the same eftect the worthy negro
delivered himself of. The Assam man made no response,
and Han's own voice sounded drowsily, and at length
ceased. The feverish, uneasy sensation I felt was in-
creased by a fancy that I saw a shadow flit past my
half-closed eyes towards the entrance of the cave, and

44 THE CLEFTS OF THE EOCK.

by hearing a pebble or two rattle down the rocks outside.
I could lie quiet no longer; and besides, I was convinced
that the hour was close at hand when Tom and I were
to share the morning watch. I got up, and stepped out
upon the ledge where our guard was set. The fire had
dwindled down until only two or three half -extinct
brands remained. The moon had gone down, and the
sunrise had hardly begun to tinge the sky. It was
indeed the "black hour" that precedes the dawn, and
my eyes could only penetrate a few yards into the murky
darkness that seemed to surround the dying fire like a
wall. There was light enough, however, to see the
prostrate figure of Hannibal, stretched close to the
embers, and a prolonged snore gave further testimony to
the way in which he was keeping watch. It was as I
had half suspected. The toils of the day had been too
much for the honest fellow, and for once his sense of
duty had succumbed to exhaustion.

But where was his companion on guard ? I glanced
my eye around in search of him, but in vain. Then I
stepped aside to see if he had ensconced himself behind
some rock. At the instant I moved, an arrow whizzed
past, almost brushing my neck, and rattled against a
boulder within a few feet of me. For a second or two
I felt paralyzed. Then gathering my wits about me, I
fired my gun, which I had brought loaded in my hand,
in the direction from whence the arrow had come. In-

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 45

stantly a howl of pain announced that I had done some-
thing more than check the hidden foe and rouse my
companions. The doctor and Tom Wilson rushed out
from the grotto, rifle in hand; and Hannibal picked him-
self up, and began violently to rub his eyes, evidently
completely at a loss to understand where he was. In a
few hurried words I explained what had happened, and
emphatic point was given to them by two or three other
arrows that came hurtling about us. It was clearly time
to withdraw into the cave ; and this we did, after hastily
trampling out the remains of the fire.

Here we lay with our rifles cocked, anxiously waiting
until daylight would break, and spending the interval
in eagerly comparing notes as to the meaning of the
startling event that had occurred, and discussing our
future plans. It was plain that we had fallen into a
trap prepared by a party of the wild hillmen, who may
have been following our trail for days, or perhaps had
been lying in ambuscade in one of the thickets we had
passed on the previous day's march. The disappearance
of both our native porters puzzled us sorely. At first
we suspected complicity on their part with our assailants;
but afterwards we came to the conclusion that they had
been seized with panic, on perceiving the dangers and
difficulties of the enterprise, and had probably over-
heard some of the doctor's remarks about the likeli-
hood of the dreaded hill-tribes being out upon a raid.

46 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

They had seized the first chance of escaping ; and we
trembled to think of the fate that had overtaken the
deserters, and which in a few hours might be our own.

After a weary time of waiting, the objects outside began
slowly to loom out more plainly in the darkness, and by-
and-by the morning light shone into our place of retreat.
The enemy had kept at a respectful distance, and contented
themselves with now and again flinging an arrow or lance
into the cave from below. We now ventured cautiously
to the entrance, and reconnoitred the ground. The
besiegers were gathered some distance off in two groups,
numbering about twenty men each, one party holding
a narrow passage by which alone we could retrace our
steps down stream, while the design of the others seemed
to be to prevent our pushing further on. They raised
an excited yell when they perceived us, and sent a
score of arrows in our direction. As we were well
sheltered behind the rocks, these did us no harm, and we
could survey the foe at comparatively little risk. A
more wild, truculent-looking crew surely never gathered
together for a deed of rapine or bloodshed. They were
rather under the middle height, but with enormously
long and powerful limbs. Their faces were of the
Mongol type that more or less prevails throughout these
hill regions ; but in the case of (5ur assailants all the
more harsh and sinister features of the Tartar counte-
nance were exaggerated to positive hideousness. Their

THE CLEFTS OF THE EOCK. 47

small, oblique eyes were set underneath a forehead
" villanous low ; " and their flattened noses, high cheek
bones, and wide mouths displaying broken rows of
yellow teeth, did not invite the confidence and sympathy
of the stranger. Their skin& appeared to have once been
copper coloured, but abstinence • from earliest childhood
from the use of soap and water had plastered them with
a thick coating of smoke and dirt. Over this repulsive
covering they wore a rough garment woven of yak's hair
or some other coarse material; their heads were defended
by caps of fur or bear-skin, or with great parasol-shaped
hats of wickerwork, adorned with yak's tails ; and their
great splay-feet were bare. For weapons they carried
a bow and arrows and spears, and most of them had
long-bladed knives stuck in their belts.

Seeing that we made no movement, they began to
shout to us in harsh, guttural tones, and indulged in an
insulting pantomime, obviously daring us to come forth
and meet them. One rascal held aloft a tin saucepan —
one of Hannibal's most cherished possessions — which he
had pilfered from the neighbourhood of the fire, and
brandished it in triumph. This was too much for the
negro, who was bringing his rifle to bear on the thief,
when the doctor struck up the barrel.

" Don't fire one of you till I give the word," he said,
for Tom and I were also fingering our triggers. " Just
think what a terrible thing it is to take the life of a

48 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

human being, however degraded. We must beware of
exasperating them, until we are sure that there is no
way of escape except by fighting; and, remember, in
our present case every cartridge is worth to us a king's
ransom."

Again the trophy was flourished in the air ; and the
enemy, who had evidently no idea of the range of our
weapons, advanced a few paces nearer. The doctor, a
splendid shot, brought his rifle to his shoulder, took a
steady aim, and fired. The saucepan, from which Han-
nibal had in his time produced some of the greatest
triumphs of the cooking art, dropped from the hands of
the astonished savage, a hole being driven clean through
the bottom of it, and after a second or two of comical
confusion, he and his companions fled in dismay. At
the pass below, however, they rallied, ashamed of their
panic. Afraid of venturing to close quarters, they now
disposed themselves behind rocks and shrubs, so as to
command every yard of our path of retreat, and seemed
to have adopted the tactics of starving us into surrender.

It was now time to decide on a plan of extricat-
ing ourselves ; and the circumstances seemed indeed
desperate. We waited, of course, for our chiefs direc-
tions.

" There is just one way open for us, boys," he said, in
a cheery, hopeful voice. " We cannot force that gateway
with so many yelling savages guarding it ; we cannot

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 49

climb up these sheer walls of rock ; and it is plain we
cannot remain where we are, with only a couple of days'
food with us. The path ahead is not obstructed; we
have cleared it at the cost of Hannibal's frying-pan."

" And berry dear cost, too," grumbled that personage,
glancing ruefully at the ruined cooking- vessel. " How
am I to cook your dinnah when you go knock de
bottom out dat pan, sar ? "

" We'll better settle how we are to get any dinner to
cook," answered the doctor dryly. "But there is no
time to lose. Get ready everything we must take along
with us : cartridges and food first, then clothes ; leave
saucepans and luxuries of that kind to their fate, and —
quick march ! Somewhere between this and the top of
the gorge we shall surely find some spot where young,
active legs can scramble up to the plateau above, and so
back to the friends we have left in the valley behind, —
especially when we have flights of poisoned arrows to
hasten our steps. — Bob, my lad," he added more gravely,
looking critically at one of the arrows, as we resumed
our march up stream, "you have had a very narrow
escape. A slight prick from this would have left you
with a very short lease of life."

As we proceeded, our persecutors left their intrenched
positions and cautiously followed in our wake, taking
care to keep well out of range of our rifles. There was
another remarkable change in our surroundings, for the

(090) 4

50 THE CLEFTS OF THE EOCK.

granite rocks gave place to stupendous cliffs of limestone
formation, and the scenery seemed to grow more weird
and fantastic every minute. The river had worn its
bed into deep ruts and basins, hollowing out for itself
yawning archways and caverns in the rock, or leaving
strangely-carved blocks standing in mid-stream. The face
of the cliffs was honeycombed with caves. White stalac-
tites hung from the roofs and glimmered in the obscurity
with a ghostly effect. Above towered the similitude of
feudal castles, with ruined turrets and tottering walls,
decaying minsters with needle-pointed spires and flying
buttresses, columns, obelisks, and towers of every strange
outline, all standing sharply defined against the sky.
It would scarcely have surprised us if a train of hunch-
backed manikins, like the trolls, gnomes, and kobolda
we had been reading of in German fairy stories, had
issued from one of these darkling caves, bending under
the weight of the great sacks of gold and precious stones
that they carried on their shoulders. It was with a
kind of shudder that we fancied we saw movements in
the depths of the grottoes, as of shadowy things flitting
to and fro,^ — doubtless some of the large vampire bats,
the capture of which had been one of the main objects
that had lured the doctor into the mountains.

But to-day we were in no mood either for geologizing
or making notes on natural history, and we pushed on
with all the speed we could muster. No breach, how-

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 51

ever, opened up in the prison walls that hemmed us in,
offering a portal to liberty and safety. There was no
foothold on the cliffs which even a goat could take
advantage of as a ladder of escape. Instead, the crags
towered above us on either hand more threateningly and
steeply than before, and in front also vast precipices,
surmounted by seemingly unscalable heights, barred our
way ; for we had now arrived close to the base of the
mountain-chain we had come so far to see. The skies
also seemed to frown on our enterprise, for great clouds
were gathered overhead, and the air in the confined
gorge was close and suffocating. Our pursuers seemed
to perceive that our hour had come, for they uttered a
shout of triumph as they crept nearer, skilfully taking
advantage of the enormous masses of rock that had
slipped down into the gorge and obstructed our way,
but which their bare feet easily surmounted.

Suddenly we saw them stop, glance at the sky, and
hastily take shelter in the clefts of the rock near them.
At the same moment a deep shadow appeared to fall on
us, and looking up, the heavens overhead seemed covered
with a black, sulphurous-looking pall, rolled fold within
fold, and gradually being drawn down closer upon us.

" Run — run, lads, for your lives ! " said Dr. Roland,
and seizing an arm apiece of Tom and me, he hurried us
at the top of our speed to the mouth of a cave which
opened a friendly refuge close at hand.

52 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

Hannibal followed on our heels ; and hardly had we
ensconced ourselves within w^hen the skies appeared to
open, and a great blaze of white light of exceeding
vividness illuminated the gloomy gorge to its innermost
recesses, followed instantaneously by a terrific crash of
thunder, that seemed to echo and re-echo from every
cleft and cavern in the mountains. Flash followed flsish,
and peal succeeded peal with stunning rapidity, and
great hailstones, or rather blocks of ice, as large, or
larger, than a pigeon's egg, began to fall, first hopping
and dancing fantastically among the rocks, whirling
madly round in an eddying wind that came sweeping
down the gullies, and then, as the gusts increased in
strength, tearing along in solid battalions, lashing wildly
the sides of the cliffs, and battering us even in the
shelter of the cave with the hard jagged particles.
After the hail came sleet ; and then rain descended in
great sheets, and continued for an hour and a half, amid
the almost incessant crashing and rumbling of the
thunder.

While this tremendous concert was proceeding, we
looked on breathless and awe-stricken, hardly daring to
exchange a word with one another. Indeed, it would
not have been easy to have made ourselves heard amidst
the pealing of the thunder, the howling of the wind, and
the roar of many waters ; for the stream, which a little
before was a mere brook, had become a powerful torrent,

THE CLEFTS OF THE EOCK. 63

that chafed like a netted lion among the rocks, and was
reinforced every few yards by streams that tumbled
down the gullies in lines of foam, or cascades that pre-
cipitated themselves over the edge of the cliffs.

Just as the storm seemed to be expending its fury in
a last burst, a new and more terrifying sound struck
upon our ears. The solid mountain shook and trembled
beneath us, and a loud and long-resounding crash seemed
to announce that the world was falling in ruins. Even
the doctor's cheek blanched, I fancied, for an instant ;
and the thought that occurred to all our minds was
that we had experienced one of the shocks of earthquake
not uncommon in Assam.

Almost immediately the rain ceased, and the sun
appeared to be struggling through the clouds ; but the
air was obscured by thick dust that filled the valley.
When this had cleared away, we at once perceived what
had happened. An extensive landslip had occurred
between us and the spot where we had seen our savage
foes seek shelter. A huge mass of the mountain had
toppled over into the gorge, completely blocking it, with
the exception of a narrow gap through which the pent-
up waters of the stream were rushing. Passage over
this obstacle there was none. At length we were safe
from pursuit — if, indeed, our pursuers had not been
buried under the falling mountain.

We could not afford to wait long musing over the

54 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

singular manner in which we had been released from
the more immediate danger. Other perils not less for-
midable encompassed us. So far as could be seen, we
were shut up in the heart of a mountain, as in a kind
of well, surrounded by frightful precipices on all sides,
and a hundred miles from the nearest outpost of civiliza-
tion. Our first care, of course, was to search for some
point where the cliffs would be found accessible. If we
failed in this, nothing less than death from starvation
stared us in the face. The afternoon was already ad-
vanced, and with our almost exhausted supplies no time
was to be lost. At first it seemed as if we were to be
balked in every attempt to escape from our prison in
the clefts of the rock. Many fissures branched off from
the head of the gorge, but all alike ended in terrific
precipices. We turned back from the last of them, tired
out and almost despairing.

" What have you got there, Hannibal ? " asked Tom
of the negro, who had stooped and picked up an object
from the ground. " Something to eat, I hope."

"Don't know I'm sure, Massa Tom," was the reply.
" 'Pears to be a bit of hoop, but might once have been a
cutlass."

The doctor took the rusty piece of iron from Hanni-
bal's hands, and examined it long and narrowly.

" This is important, boys," he said. " It means that
other travellers have been here before us. It is a knife-

THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK. 55

blade of Burmese manufacture. I have often heard that
the Shans from the Upper Irrawady cross the mountains,
and barter these knives, and also metal ornaments and
cloth, with the hill-tribes, in exchange for furs, musk,
medicinal plants, yak's hair, and other productions
of the mountains. It is plain that a road leads
past this spot ; and if barbarians can follow it merely
for trade, I think Britons need not shrink from it in
a matter of life and death. Let us go back and look
again."

We raised a hearty cheer at this good news. Fortune
seemed resolved to smile on us in our extremity; for our
shout startled an antelope that had taken cover behind
a rock near at hand, and it dashed in a slanting line
up the cliffs. The doctor's rifle was instantly at his
shoulder, but to our surprise he did not fire, contenting
himself with covering the animal's body as it bounded
along the precipitous face of the crags.

" Fire, doctor ! — fire, or it will be gone ! " called Tom
with his accustomed headlonsf eaojerness.

The doctor, however, took his time ; but at last the
report of the gun awakened the echoes of the hills, and
the antelope, after a desperate effort to maintain its
foothold, fell from a great height, crashing from rock to
rock, till it lay motionless at the bottom.

" I wished to watch the track it took," explained the
doctor, as Hannibal shouldered the body and we turned

66 THE CLEFTS OF THE ROCK.

away. "And now I think I have the clue that will
lead us out of this trap."

That night we supped cheerfully on roast haunch of
venison, and I think that, in spite of the lamented loss
of our cooking apparatus, the whole party enjoyed a meal
so plentifully sauced with hunger — except myself.

CHAPTER IV.

THE IRON WALL.

OT only did I not relish supper, but I passed
another night of feverish restlessness, and in
!aji| the morning I felt quite ill. The fact was
that I was suffering from the first symptoms
of fever, that I had doubtless caught in our wade
through the marshes below. I knew, however, that the
lives of myself and my companions depended on our
getting out of our present position with all speed ; and
I saw plainly in Dr. Roland's face, in spite of his
cheerful tone, that he was keenly reproaching himself
for having been the means of bringing us into such
deadly peril. I resolved, therefore, to bear up to the
last gasp, rather than add to his anxiety, or be a burden
to my comrades.

We began the ascent of the mountain, following as
closely as possible the steps of the antelope we had shot,
the doctor leading the way, and I bringing up the rear,
where my companions had least chance of noticing my

58 THE IRON WALL.

distress. I have a very confused and vague remem-
brance of the events of this notable day. I cannot
describe the features of the Iron Wall, and I could not
lead a party over it. This, however, is of small con-
sequence, as its wonders, with the particulars regarding
the nature of its rocks and its plant and animal life, will
be fully dealt with in Dr. Roland's great work of travel
and discovery. I only know that, slowly and painfully,
we scrambled our way upwards to the region of cloud
and snow. We crawled like flies along the flank of the
mountain, treading narrow ledges where a single false
step would have been destruction, clinging desperately
to rock and root, and stepping across yawning fissures
that made the head swim as we peered fearfully into
their depths. Grass and shrubs gave place to Alpine
mosses and lichens or naked rocks, and patches of snow
lay in the sheltered spots. There was urgent need that
we should cross the " divide" before nightfall; for if we
slept out on the bare mountain-side we ran the risk of
being frozen to death, or if a storm like that of the
previous day overtook us we should be blown into space '
like straws. It was impossible to move a yard aside
from our path, girded in as it was by precipices ; and
we noticed many signs — notches and steps cut in the
rock, and occasionally the trunk of a tree laid across a
crevasse — that proved that the way had been traversed
by others before us. It led to a deep " saddle," which

THE IRON WALL. 69

we now saw in the ridge above us, some fifteen hundred
feet, as near as we could judge, below the snowy peaks
on either side.

For myself, I despaired of ever reaching this goal of
our desires. My fingers trembled and my knees knocked
together as I crept along the dizzy ledges, and a film
gathered before my eyes as I strove to keep pace with
my companions. An ague fit made my teeth chatter as
I tried to set them and keep in a cry for help, and the
wind from the frozen heights above pierced me like an
icicle. Latterly I think I must have fallen into a half-
insensible state, and struggled on mechanically with the
strength of delirium. We had climbed high above the
level of the lower hills, and a majestic panorama of
mountain and valley was spread below us. It seemed as
if in a dream I were being carried, by no will of my own,
up the steep slope of a colossal wave, with a tempestuous
sea of white-crested billows heaving and falling around
me, and unfathomable black gulfs opening up between.

At last nature gave way, and I sank down helpless
on the track. My comrades moved on some paces before
they observed what had befallen me, and then in an
instant they were all about me. I remember feebly
urging them to leave me to my fate, and to hurry for-
ward for their own safety. The doctor felt my pulse,
and prepared a draught from the little medicine-box
that he always carried about with him, speaking cheer-

60 THE IRON WALL.

fully and affectionately as I endeavoured to swallow it ;
and my dear friend Tom grasped my other hand, while
tears gathered in his eyes. Then Hannibal hoisted me
tenderly upon his brawny shoulders — fortunately I was
a light weight, and sturdy Tom would have been a
much more serious burden — and the up-hill march was
resumed as I lapsed into unconsciousness.

For a second or two I " came round," and opening my
eyes found myself supported by my companions, and
surrounded by deep snow, with icy peaks rising on
either hand. The sun was going down behind us, and
threw gigantic shadows on the mists that were gathering
below ; and the snowy ridges that I had fancied were
white-crested waves now looked like icebergs floating in
a lake of purple. In front of us, however, there was an
opening in the clouds, and a glimpse was caught of a
deep defile like that which we had left behind us,
opening in the distance into a larger valley, where there
was the far-off gleam of rushing waters.

The doctor was finishing some remark, and I caught
the word " Irrawady." I had my wits sufficiently about
me to understand that we had reached the crisis of vic-
tory— that we had surmounted the great barrier, and dis-
covered the hidden upper course of the great river of Bur-
mah. I waved my hand, and uttered a feeble " Hurrah."

" Hurrah !" echoed Tom in a voice that struggled to be
firm, and then the whole " expedition " cheered in chorus.

CHAPTER V.

UPS AND DOWNS.

HEN I came again to my senses I was lying
in a cave, on a comfortable couch of fir
branches, covered with skins of deer and
bear. For a moment or two I imagined
that I had never left the grotto where we had slept on
the night after we had parted from the bulk of our fol-
lowers at the falls, and that all that had happened since
— the desertion of our guides, the attack and pursuit of the
savages, the thunderstorm, and the perilous journey over
the mountain — was a nightmare dream. The cliffs that I
caught glimpses of through the entrance of the cave had
the same fantastic shapes that had become familiar to us
on the other side of the Iron Wall, and rose into slender
spires and pinnacles, flanked with turrets and over-
hanging eaves that seemed to put the laws of gravity at
defiance. But as I propped myself upon my elbow and
noted this, I perceived that there was an important
change from the scenes I had left. The valley was

62 ^ UPS AND DOWNS.

wider, its walls were higher, and the whole features of the
landscape were on a grander scale. That we were in a
warmer climate, too, was evident from the half -tropical
plants that draped the entrance to the cave, and clung
to the nooks and crannies of the rocks; while above,
great pine forests began, and stretched almost to the
summit of the hills. I tried to sit up, in order to get
a better view, but was glad to fall back again upon
the fur pillows, and bear with wdiat patience I could the
affliction of waiting for an explanation.

I had not long to wait. In a few minutes the honest
black face of Hannibal appeared at the mouth of the
cave. He stepped in upon tiptoe ; but when he saw
my eyes wide open and staring inquiringly at him, he
gave a start, half of fright and half of joy, as if he were
about to jump out of his skin, and hurried up to me.

" Oh, golly, Massa Bob !" he said, seizing my hand,
while two big tears rolled down the sides of his nose,
as if racing each other to reach the tip — " you have got
frewit?"

" Through what, Han ? " I replied, for my ideas were
still somewhat confused. " Have we come right through
below the mountain ? "

Before Han could reply the doctor and Tom entered,
and were, of course, not less overjoyed to see that the
fever had left me. From the three I gradually got
explanations of what had happened since I lost con-

UPS AND DO\VNS. 63

sciousness on the mountain-top. To my surprise I heard
that a whole fortnight had elapsed since then, during
which time my companions more than once feared that
they would lose me. The descent of the mountain, they
assured me, had been comparatively easy. A glacier
ran a long way down into the valley, and taking advan-
tage of the hard-pressed snow that lay upon it, they
had constructed a kind of sleigh, with a brake contriv-
ance to regulate the speed, such as the doctor had seen
in operation in Canada and Russia, and slid rapidly and
easily down to the region of pine forests. The passage
was a dangerous one, for any moment a crevasse might
have opened and swallowed us ; but there was no other
way of descent, and we arrived safely at the bottom.
From thence my comrades had carried me by easy stages
to the spot where I now lay, within hearing of the
rushing flood of the Irrawady. They made light of the
toils that I had caused them by so inopportunely
breaking down ; but I knew what unspeakable cause
for thankfulness I had to them for so bravely sticking
by me, and so tenderly nursing me in my delirium and
weakness. Afterwards I had chances of paying a small
part of my debt of gratitude ; for before our journey
ended we had all had our share of fever, and had each
our turns of being nurse and patient.

During my fever fit, and while I was recovering
strength, my comrades were not idle. The doctor was

64 UPS AND DOWNS.

out on the hills every day, accompanied either by Tom
or Hannibal, surveying the ground, hunting, or collecting
scientific information ; while one of the party was left
" at home," as we learned to call our cave, to attend to
the sick and to the cooking. Fortunately game was not
scarce, and many a fragrant stew Hannibal prepared,
by the aid of our last preserved-meat tin, with the
pheasants, wild duck, quail, and deer that made up the
daily bag ; while the river yielded a welcome change of
fare, especially when we were lucky enough to hook the
lordly mahseer, a fish as large and as fine-flavoured — at
least such was the opinion of one hungry convalescent —
as the salmon. Pot vegetables, edible mushrooms, salads,
and other garnishing were not wanting — for here the
doctor's botanical knowledge came very usefully to our
aid ; and we soon learned to like the wild rhubarb which
grew plentifully on the higher groimd. For dessert we
laid under contribution the fine walnut, chestnut, apricot,
peach, and cherry trees that covered the slopes of the
gorges, as well as the brambles, wild gooseberries, straw-
berries, and rasps that throve in the covers below ; so
that altogether we were, in respect to food, not greatly
to be pitied, in spite of the doses of tete and other
indigenous drugs which the doctor made us swallow
daily as a precaution against fever.

We could not, however, live for ever in this secluded
valley, and our main subject of anxiety was our future

UPS AND DOWNS. 65

route. A careful survey of the ground had shown that
there was no escape by the river, either up or down
stream. About two miles above us the Irrawady
narrowed to little more than a dozen yards, and tore
with a sound like thunder down a series of cataracts,
between sheer walls of rocks rising to a height of many
hundreds of feet. At a distance of a few hundred
yards below us the stream entered another gorge,
scarcely so steep and narrow — for fine larch and fir trees
partly clothed the face of the cliffs, and rose tier above
tier till they seemed dwindled to shrubs — but equally
impassable either by land or water. Nearly opposite
us was a reach of comparatively calm water ; and at no
great distance ofiT, on the other bank, the entrance to a
side valley, similar to the one we had descended,
promised us the only loophole of escape. Plenty of logs
and brushwood was scattered along the shore, left there
by the summer floods, which we noticed marked a rise
of forty or fifty feet in the river-level in the confined
channels above and below. Out of this material it was
easy to construct a raft ; and as another fortnight's rest
had made me feel strong enough to resume the march,
we embarked one fine morning on this cumbrous craft ;
and after half-an-hour's hard toil, and several narrow
escapes from going to pieces on the rocks, or being
swept down by the current and eddies, we managed to
reach safely the opposite bank.

(690) 5

66 UPS AND DOWNS.

Landing, and shouldering our knapsacks, which we
had taken care to store with what was needful for
several days' march through a sterile and probably
uninhabited country, we allowed our raft to drift away
down stream, where it was soon tossing and whirling
among the rapids.

Then the doctor made us a little speech.

" It is six weeks, as you know, boys," he said, " since
we left our friends at Poolongyan. We were due to re-
turn there a fortnight ago ; but instead, we have been
drifting, like that raft there, further and further away,
into wilder and more troubled scenes, with no possibility
of return by the way we have come. We must now
make up our minds about what we are to do ; and I say
that we must turn our backs upon India and make
China our aim. We have made one great discovery —
though chance, rather than design, has led us to it.
Others as wonderful lie ahead ; and it will be a noble
ambition to make thfem ours. In the first place, we
have to climb these hills ; and I hope that we shall shortly
reach the valley of the Salwen river, where we shall be
able to purchase mules at some of the tribal villages or
at a Buddhist monastery ; for, you know, we are going
up into Thibet, and there the priests are the kings.
You must be prepared to meet dangers and hardships —
more than I would ever have dreamed of exposing you
to, if I had known where our trip would have led us.

UPS AND DOWNS. 67

We shall probably have to face wild beasts and robbers,
precipices and torrents, cold and hunger ; but I do not
see why, with stout hearts and limbs, and clear heads
and consciences, and with weapons to fill our larder, and
in a last extremity to defend our lives, we should not
come through them all. We choose to consider ourselves
as explorers, not as fugitives, and cheery endeavour will
be our watchword."

" * Be not like dumb, driven cattle,
Be a hero in the strife,' "

chimed in Tom, swinging a tough oak cudgel he had cut
to assist his steps. So it was to the words of Long-
fellow's beautiful " Psalm of Life " that we began the
toilsome ascent of the Thibetan mountains ; and I think
if you could have watched us as we stepped out, you
would have said that there was some of its fire in our
eyes and our hearts.

It was not long before we had to make large demands
on our stock both of courage and of patience. I fear it
might weary my readers to have a daily record of our
arduous journey among the bare and savage mountains
through which our route now led us for many days. I
can assure them that in actual fact it was much more
wearisome than it could possibly be made in description.
They may get some small idea of the mere fatigue
that had to be undergone, if they can find a staircase six
thousand feet high or more, and climb to the top of it

68 UPS AND DOWNS.

every morning and down again every night. But even
this would not take account of the terrors and the perils
of the way. The slippery ledges along which we had to
pick our steps, and where a crumbling fragment of the
rock disturbed by the foot would bound down for hun-
dreds of feet into the gloomy ravine, its distant splash
lost in the boom of rushing waters, brought us to snowy
ridges, on which, after all our toilsome climbing, we
dared not rest, so piercing was the cold, and so rarefied
the air in which we sought in vain to fetch back our
spent breath. Then we had to scramble down steep
slopes, torn into deep ruts and covered with splinters of
slaty rock, as if some huge harrows had been dragged
athwart the hills, until we found ourselves in the gloomy
depths of a ravine, where only a thin slip of blue sky
was to be seen overhead. At mid-day our faces would
be cracked and blistered by the frosty winds that blew
on the mountains ; and ere nightfall the close, sultry air
of the confined valleys almost stifled us. With all our
exertions we seemed to make no progress. The gorge
where, for the sake of warmth and shelter, we would
halt for the evening was an exact model of the one
we had left in the morning. When the new barrier of
precipitous mountain had been painfully climbed, the
top disclosed more heights, snowy, bare, or pine-covered,
rising in front of us.

It must not be thought, however, that there was no

UPS AND DOWNS. 69

beauty or grace in these savage scenes. Often the route
carried us over grassy hills and hollows, where, in spots
sheltered from the powerful sun, the sward was thickly
sown with daisies, buttercups, and less familiar flowers,
whose names and properties the doctor took care to ex-
plain to us. We were sure to meet with slopes covered
with rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, and other plants
with glossy green leaves and bright blossoms, and to
pass through forests of tall firs, cedars, and larches,
before coming to the cold, bare heights above.

But gradually, as we advanced, the features of the
scenery grew more harsh and abrupt ; the gaunt bones
of the mountains pushed themselves further through
their turfy covering, until only thin patches of green
checkered the sterile rocks. Game, too, failed us. The
daily " bag " dwindled down until it no longer yielded
us a satisfying meal at the close of the march. Hunger
began to vex us. We were constantly coming upon signs
of the wandering tribes of savages that haunt these hills,
in the shape of embers of camp-fires and remains of
temporary huts. The track we were following was
evidently often used by them, and some of their hunting
parties had passed over it only a little time before. At
first we had congratulated ourselves at not falling in
with such dangerous wayfarers ; but we now began
to wish that we would light upon a living creature
of any sort, were it man or beast. Were it the

70 UPS AND DOWNS.

latter, it might serve us for a meal : if the former,
we might be served in our turn ; but any risk seemed
better than the certainty of starvation from cold and
hunger.

On the fifth evening after we had crossed the Irra-
wady, we halted for the night in a small grove of forest
trees. In truth, so " dead beat " were we that we could
not have dragged our tired limbs many yards further,
and we were glad to take advantage of the shelter the
trees afforded. To add to our misery, our last scrap of
food had been eaten, and to-night, for the first time, we
must go supperless to bed.

" Hallo ! " said Tom, stretching himself below one of
the trees, " if this isn't a holly ! Doesn't it remind one
of Christmas-time at home — roast-beef, plum-pudding,
and all the rest ? "

" Please don't speak of roast-beef and plum-puddin',
Massa Tom," said poor Hannibal, the cook, pleadingly.
" It hurts my feelin's."

" And please don't speak of hollies. Master Tom, when
you should say oaks," put in the doctor.

" Why, this is a holly, is it not, sir ? " Tom rejoined.
" Look at these leaves — and the prickles," he added,
hastily withdrawing his hand, for he had allowed one of
the sharp spines to run into his finger.

" But look at the height, and the bark, and more par-
ticularly the acorns," retorted Dr. Roland. " It is the

UPS AND DOWNS. 71

holly-leaved oak of Thibet, Tom, and wiser men than
you have been deceived by it."

" Let us camp under one of them," I suggested. " It
will be a double reminder of England and good cheer."

" Both dearer for their absence," murmured Tom.

So we selected one of these strange, bushy oak trees,
that promised to give us effectual shelter, and soon were
seated around a crackling fire of dry fir branches.

" Is there nothing left in the pantry at all, Hannibal ? "
asked the doctor ; " not even twice-used tea leaves, to
make a brew of ? "

" No, sar," replied Han sadly, at the same time produc-
ing from his pockets and laying before the embers some
ripe chestnuts that he had knocked down from the
trees with stones while we had been discussing the holly
versus oak question.

There was little opportunity to-night for rehewing
the loving squabble that we had every meal-hour
over the division of the food, in which each man-
oeuvred to get the largest shares for his neighbours.
I am afraid Hannibal told terrible fibs about the quan-
tities he consumed while cooking, in order to excuse his
small appetite when his dishes were produced. The
doctor was deaf to the arguments of Tom and myself,
that being a big full-grown man, he ought to have
double the share of us lads. It was the same at bed-
time : the members of the party were continually quar-

72 UPS AND DOWNS.

relling for the most uncomfortable post, or heaping
clothes about those who were " caught napping." Then,
on the march, I hardly knew whether to cry for vexa-
tion or for gratitude at the way my companions per-
sisted in treating me as still an invalid, who ought to be
relieved of hard work as much as possible. It is incred-
ible the dodges by which that rascal Tom — generally
the most frank, straightforward fellow breathing — would
try to get possession of my gun, and insist on carrying
it for me. As was only our duty, every one tried now
and throughout the journey to keep up as contented,
manly, and .even "jolly" a demeanour as he could, for
the sake of his comrades ; but each must have felt that
the situation was becoming desperate. So we cheered
the appearance of the handful of chestnuts, though, for
myself, I felt so hungry that I could have sat down
prepared to do justice to a leg of elephant.

" What will happen to us to-morrow, sir ? " asked
some of us of the doctor.

"I would not like to prophesy," he replied, "but I
think that we must be near the crisis of our troubles.
From the distance we have marched, we must be quite
close to the basin of the Salwen. For the first time,
we have found no gorge between the ranges, only a
hollow. I shouldn't wonder if, when we crest the hill
in front of us, we should see both the river and the
savages. They have apparently hunted all the game

UPS AND DOWNS. 73

from this side of the watershed, and have followed to
the banks of the Salwen. Or, perhaps, they have been
northward on a raid, and are now seeking shelter from
the Thibetan troops in their remotest gorges."

From Thibet and its snows and savages our discourse
gradually turned, as it was always sure to do, to the
little island in the northern seas which we so proudly
claimed as our country; and we talked long of our
friends at home, and how small idea they could have of
our strange surroundings. The night had fallen, and
the keen frosty air made us shiver ; for our camping-
ground was higher than any we had yet reached, and
our clothes, ill-suited in any case for such an arctic
climate, were torn by thorns and rocks. So we crept
up close to the fire, and heaped on more fuel, till the
smoke curled in great clouds through the branches
above us.

All at once we were astounded by a violent shaking
of the boughs overhead and a monstrous black appari-
tion gradually descending almost into our midst. First
appeared a shapeless mass, covered with long shaggy
black hair, hangino: from a lower limb of the tree : and
then shoulders and fore paws, and lastly a snouted head
emerged into sight, as with angry gruntings the creature
leisurely descended the trunk. So surprised were we
that it was a few seconds before we could realize that
we were about to be " interviewed " by a mountain

74 UPS AND DOWNS.

bear, who had probably climbed the tree to feast on the
acorns, and had remained hidden in the thick foliage
and failing light, until we had " smoked " him off his
perch. Our guns were piled behind the tree, and the
doctor had barely time to slip round and seize his rifle,
when his bearship was among us. He seemed in a
shockingly bad humour, for he growled angrily and
champed his great jaws together, as, still half -blinded with
the smoke, he blundered forward into the fire, scattering
the lighted brands in all directions, and, I hm bound to
admit, putting us ignominiously to flight. By this time
the doctor had got his gun ready, and fired ; but a
branch catching his sleeve, the bullet only grazed Bruin's
cheek, and enraged him the more. He turned and
made again towards the tree, but a smart blow over the
nose from Hannibal with a burning fagot made him
change his mind ; and after a struggle between wrath
and prudence, he shuffled off* into the darkness.

It did not, however, suit hungry travellers to see a
possible supper disappear in this manner; so, taking
our guns, we started in search. It is not altogether
pleasant to hunt for an angry bear in a dark wood ; and
I own that my heart jumped to my mouth when, coming
roimd the trunk of a tree, I felt a hot breath in my
face, and saw a shadowy shape, that seemed of gigantic
dimensions, within a yard or two of me. For the
second time that night, I fled with the bear close at my

UPS AND DOWNS. 75

heels ; but luckily the doctor was close at hand, and a
shot through the brain bowled over my slouching
pursuer. By-and-by we were feasting joyously on
bear-steaks ; and I am in a position to say that for
desperately hungry men, and when there is nothing
better to be had, they are not to be despised.

CHAPTER VI.

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

EXT morning we breakfasted on Bruin, and
resumed the march. Bearing in mind the
likelihood of the savages being near at hand,
we thought it proper to move with circumspection ;
so, instead of following the track that would have
carried us directly over the ridge in front, we pro-
ceeded southward some distance down the valley that
ran parallel to it, and then climbed cautiously to the
top, and peered over, under the shelter of a great rock.
What we saw entirely satisfied us of the correctness of
the doctor's views as to our whereabouts, and of the
wisdom of the precautions we had taken not to exposQ
ourselves. Before us were short ranges of hills, sepa-
rated by narrow valleys, and all running in the same
general direction — north and south — as those we had
already crossed, but so much lower than that on which
we stood, that we could make out beyond them what
appeared to be a long deep furrow ploughed through

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 77

the mountains. This could hardly be other than the
long-looked-f or gorge o£ the Salwen river. On the other
side were more lines of hills, rising step behind step to
a snowy range, with the sun glistening on its peaks.

But what chiefly attracted our notice was the scene
that lay directly at our feet. A kind of natural amphi-
theatre was hollowed in the hill, and completely enclosed
by two spurs thrown off from the range. The only
openings from it were a pass at the upper end, that we
should have traversed if we had pursued the direct
route, and a narrow rocky gorge below, by which a
small stream escaped to the Salwen. The rocks where
we stood descended almost perpendicularly, and you could
fancy that you could drop a stone upon a grassy flat
extending on each bank of the rivulet below, though it
must have been almost a quarter of a mile away. On
this piece of turf a singular-looking group was gathered.
We almost fancied that we recognized our acquaintances
who had hunted us so persistently a few weeks ago.
The features, the gestures, the costume, and the weapons
— so far as we could make them out from our lofty
station — generally resembled those of the Assam hill-
men ; but these people seemed to have come less into
contact with civilized ways than even their brethren on
the western side of the Iron Wall. Some of them were
clad in the fells of wild beasts, and wore for ornament
what appeared to be strings of coral beads round their

78 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

necks, and large earrings dangling on their shoulders ;
but others had no covering from the cold beyond a
waistcloth and their long black hair. We fancied we
could make out tattoo-marks on their limbs and chests.
Groups of sheep, goats, and small, shaggy-coated horses
and mules were pasturing on the grass, and the deep
baying of several huge yellow dogs came up to us.
But the most curious-looking objects were a score or so
of immense hairy beasts, like enormous goats, yet with
something about them reminding one of domestic cattle,
that quietly fed among the other animals. They had
down-looking heads, short muzzles, and humps like
bisons ; a long fell of hair descended from their dew-
laps and flanks almost to the ground, and their tails
were huge bunches of white or brown hair. A little
reflection, of course, told Tom and me that this must
be the famous yak, the domestic ox of Thibet ; but
Hannibal was sorely puzzled, and one could see, from
his nervous glances in their direction, that rather than
face one of these mysterious-looking creatures, he would
encounter a dozen of savages.

Smoke curled up from the valley, and preparations
were going on for a feast as we stood discussing in low
tones what steps we should take. One of the yaks was
led out into an open space, and, apparently at a given
signal, one of the men sprang upon it with the bound of
a panther, and plunged a long knife into its throat.

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 79

Instantly the whole savage crew flung themselves on
the struggling beast, and cut and slashed and hacked
ofl* great pieces of flesh with sickening ferocity. The
sight was not one to inspire us with confidence ; but
feeling it necessary to be doing something, and fearing
that we would be caught sight of by the group below,
we began to move towards the pass, carefully keeping
ourselves concealed behind the brow of the hill. We
had not e^one far when we noticed an unusual move-
ment in the camp of the savages. They seemed to have
suspended their meal, and to be hastily preparing for
flight. Looking back into the valley we had left, we at
once saw the cause of the commotion. A cavalcade had
emerged from the hills, and was already crossing the
shallow stream we had waded on the previous night.
The hillmen had evidently scouts posted on the pass,
who had given them notice of the approach of danger.

The new-comers drew nearer, and it would be difficult
to imagine a more motley group. Some of the party
were on foot, but the majority were mounted on horses
or on yaks, while a train of pack-mules and donkeys
brought up the rear. The objects of the company
seemed to be partly military and partly trading ; for
while most of them carried long spears, and here and
there the stock of an old flintlock showed itself, others
were attired like peaceable merchants. There was the
same variety in features and dress as in martial equip-

80 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

ment. Bold, harsh, Tartar traits and rough sheep-skin
garments predominated, but there were several members
of the party whose regular features, full, flowing beards,
and ample robes and turbans recalled the Mohammedan
races of Western Asia.

We had not long time for deliberation, and Dr.
Roland at once decided that we should show ourselves.
The appearance of four men — three of them white and
one intensely black — suddenly starting up from among
the rocks, caused unbounded surprise and not a little
consternation. Seeing, however, how small our party
was, the strangers quickly recovered from their panic,
and several barrels were levelled at us. The doctor
at once made signs of amity, and shouted something
in Chinese to the leader of the band, who evidently
understood him, for after a short parley we were sig-
nalled to approach. Our new acquaintances, we found,
were a party of horse who had been sent out to punish
a raid which the Lu-tzes, a notorious tribe of robbers,
had made into Thibetan territory, and, if possible, to
recover ihe plunder. Along with them were several
traders from Kashgar, who, we learned, had travelled
across the breadth of Thibet with their wares, and had
seized this chance of getting an escort across the wild,
unsettled country between them and the Chinese mart
of Tali-fu, to which they were bound.

The captain of the Thibetans was a tall, stalwart

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 81

fellow, with a fierce black eye, and restless, energetic
movements, who was only distinguished from his fol-
lowers by the greater profusion of coral and turquoise
ornaments about him, and by the jade-hilted sword stuck
in his belt. He seemed greatly puzzled to know what to
do with us ; for the lamas — the priestly rulers of Thibet
— have an inveterate objection to strangers, and especi-
ally Englishmen, entering their sacred country. The
doctor, however, rightly judged of the kind of arguments
that the Kashgaree merchants must have used to over-
come this prejudice ; and after a short chat with the
leader, in which we distinctly heard the clink of some
of the Indian rupees which pass freely current in
Thibet, we were allowed to join the band.

Our new friends were astonished when they heard
from us that the marauders of whom they were in
pursuit were so close at hand, and hastened forward
with all speed to overtake them ; but when we came in
sight of the green basin in the mountain, where a few
minutes before we had seen so animated a sight, it
was quite empty. Savages, yaks, mules, horses, sheep,
and dogs had disappeared, as if the hill had opened and
swallowed them up. I rubbed my eyes, and felt like
one of those belated travellers who have watched a fairy-
pageant until the whole of the little green-jerkined com-
pany have vanished at cockcrow; or like Fitz- James when
" Clanalpine's warriors " sank from sight at the beck of

(690) Q

82 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

Roderick Dhu. Our Thibetan guard probably did not
trouble their minds with such fancies ; for they instantly
set spurs to their horses, and went clattering down the
glen, over rock and hillock, at a great rate, leaving us
foot-passengers far behind.

By-and-by from the gorge below came sounds of
battle — shots that echoed and echoed again among the
hills, hoarse shouts and words of command, the deep
lowing of yaks, the neighing of horses, and the barking of
dogs. When we reached the spot the fight was already
over. The robbers had managed to escape with part of
their prey into their inaccessible retreats in the moun-
tains, but the greater portion of the booty had been
recaptured. A group of dismounted men was gathered
about a form lying prostrate on a ledge of rock. It
was Tzang, the leader of the troop. Eager, as usual, to
be first in the fray, he had spurred on in front, and had
been struck on the chest with a poisoned arrow by one
of the retreating freebooters. Dr. Roland drew near,
and so skilfully did he dress and cauterize the wound,
that after an hour or two's rest the patient was able to
resume his seat in the saddle.

During this halt we made amends for our long fast
by doing justice to the strange fare spread before us, —
roast yak beef, a huge bowl of tsamba, and " buttered
tea." The last dish caused us a wry face or two, for it
was against all our prejudices to see boiling tea beaten

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 83

up in a churn, with rancid butter instead of cream, and
salt in place of sugar. The tsamba is oat or barley meal
porridge with great lumps of butter in it ; and we soon
learned to relish this strong dish, which was our main
article of diet during our stay in Thibet. When the
march was continued we were mounted on hardy mules,
selected from the herd recovered from the Lu-tze free-
booters ; and what was to us of nearly as much im-
portance, we were clad in the rude but warm sheep-skin
garments in which the natives can face the rigorous cold
of this high region.

Nothing of unusual interest occurred until, in the
evening, we reached the banks of the Salwen river. We
had to pass over some dangerous bits of road ; but
precipices and abysses are as familiar things in this
country as hedgerows are in England, and we left the
matter to our mules, who chose their footing with
unerring instinct. It was, nevertheless, a welcome sight
to us when the deep, green river- valley opened its arms,
as if inviting us to rest and shelter after so long a
sojourn amid inhospitable rocks. The banks at this
point sank down to the level of the stream with a slope
that seemed gentle after what we had lately been
accustomed to, and they were covered with fine trees,
the vivid greenness of whose leaves was in delicious
contrast to the black cliffs around. Below, a beautiful
sward, scattered over with clumps of wood, spread on

84 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

each side of a smooth current flowing between rocky-
islets. Everything spoke of smiling peace and kindly-
warmth, and a thin yellowish vapour that floated over
the water gave a softer charm to the scene.

To our surprise, instead of descending to the bottom
of the valley, we halted on the bleak mountain-side, and
preparations were made for camping.

" What do these stupid fellows mean by staying up
here in the cold, when we might be so snug down in
that delightful valley ?" asked downright Tom of the
doctor. " I see plainly apples and peaches hanging in
the trees, waiting to be plucked ; and there must be
trout lurking in these deep pools, which Han could make
into a stew fit for a king, and beat their tea-gruel and
buttered porridge all to sticks."

" Content yourself with porridge for to-night, Tom,
and be thankful," replied our chief. " You would have
been very glad of it last night, when you were looking on
with such hungry looks while the bear-steaks were getting
brown. I would not advise you to pluck the apples in
that paradise; and you may be sure that our guides know
quite well what they are about. That deceitful, smiling
valley of the Salwen has been of evil omen, since long
before Marco Polo wrote that ' any stranger would die
for certain ' who attempted to cross it."

"How is that, sir?" asked 1, while Hannibal looked
from the doctor to the river and back in dumb horror.

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 85

" Malaria is the name of the demon that haunts it,"
was the reply. " You can see the sickly mist hanging
over it just now. If you went down there, and waited
long enough to cast a line, you would be more certain
to bring away with you fever and ague than trout.
Come away, boys ; there will be no fry to-night. Both
fish and frying-pan are beyond your reach, and here is a
smoking dish of tsamba coming."

" And does nobody live on the river ? " we asked, for
the mysterious stream excited our curiosity.

" I believe that some of the tribes sow rice in the
valley," said Dr. Roland. " They fling in the seed with
fearful haste, and snatch their harvest at the risk of
their lives. Gold-seekers have also gone down the
stream, in search of the yellow metal. There is gold in
the sands of all these rivers, and it is regularly worked
on the Yangtze and the Mekong ; but it is said to be
peculiarly plentiful on the Salwen. The treasure-hunters
have never returned to tell whether the story was true
or not. They have died of the fever, or have been
swept down by the wild waves of the Lu-kiang, as the
Salwen is named up here. Some of the tribes call it
the 'Valley of the Shadow,' because it mostly runs
through gloomy chasms, with the cliffs nearly knocking
their brows together overhead ; and you see that it has
two claims to the title."

" And is it the same all the way down ? "

86 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

" Not exactly all the way ; for at its mouth — some
eight hundred miles from this — you would find your-
selves among British shipping and the comfortable
bungalows of our countrymen at Moulmein and Martaban.
But I daresay there is no stream in the world that has
so confined a basin, considering its great length."

" It must be like old Euclid's definition of a line —
length without breadth," said Tom.

" But how is dat ribber to be got ober, sar ?" was the
more practical remark of Hannibal. " Did Massa Polo
tell you how him get 'cross, and come back again all
'live ?"

" We will see to-morrow morning," replied the doctor,
and we could get no further explanation from him that
evening.

At daybreak we followed the range bordering the river,
and soon came upon the water boiling and roaring far
beneath us between steep walls scarcely a stone-throw
apart. Gradually the opposing clifis approached nearer, and
we came to a stop at a spot where it seemed impossible to
advance a hundred yards further. Our Thibetan guards
now prepared to leave us and return home. Their fierce
looks and rough boisterous manners had alarmed us at
first, but we had found them not unkindly. Their
captain, Tzang, took a quite affectionate farewell of the
doctor, whom he credited, and I daresay rightly, with
having saved his life. He insisted, in token of his

THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW. 87

gratitude, on pressing upon us, as a present, the animals
on which we were riding. Our chief would not hear of
this, but at last the matter was adjusted by Tzang
accepting in turn a handsome gold chain which the
doctor removed from his watch. A few rupees —
" wandering rajahs," as they are called up here — were
distributed among the followers, and were received with
noisy shouts of delight. Tom and I could not help think-
ing, while all this was going on, that it was scarcely an act
of friendship to abandon us on the edge of a precipice,
and that unless the mules could jump across the gulf
that lay in our path, they could hardly be of service to
us. We said nothing, however, as the doctor seemed
quite satisfied, and advanced confidently towards two
slim lines that we now for the first time noticed span-
ning the abyss, like spiders' threads. One of these lines,
which we found, on approaching, to be of wire chain,
started from an elevated point on the opposite bank,
and sloped down towards our side, while the other rope
was higher on the hither bank. To a platform at the
extremity of this latter chain the doctor ascended,
seated himself on a sort of leathern sling that moved
along the rope on a skid, cast himself loose, and in an
instant he had skimmed across to the opposite cliff like
a bird. Then unfastening the sling, and adjusting it on
the other chain, he slipped back to us with equal ease.
After this illustration of the method of usinir this

88 THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

curious bridge, we could have no hesitation, and the
mules and baggage of our party, which still included
the Kashgaree traders, were slung one by one upon the
rope, and launched safely across the chasm. I own
that when my turn came to take my seat on the strap
of rough hide on which the precarious passage had to
be made, I did not feel comfortable. Suspended, as
by a thread, over the gulf of darkness, with the plash
and boom of the torrent rising from below, I felt
awe-stricken and almost terrified. For a moment I
became giddy and faint, but in the next I was standing
securely on firm soil. I think we were all relieved
when, waving farewell to our Thibetan friends on the
other side, we turned our backs on that Valley of
Shadows and Eiver of Death.

CHAPTER VII.

YAKS AND LAMAS.

OR the next few stages of the route nothing
very wonderful befell us. The track was
more frequented, and more care had been
taken in its construction. In some places a narrow cause-
way had been hewn for a considerable distance along the
face of the cliffs, and occasionally the road was carried
over strong timber beams driven into the rock, and
paved with rough boards or slabs. The track still zig-
zagged as before from the clouds into the bowels of the
earth, and back again into the clouds ; but its direction,
as we were now on the highway to the famous city
of Tali, led us more to the southward instead of due
east. There were plenty of signs that we were
approaching civilization. The tribesmen whom we met
glared at us with greedy eyes, as if they would have
liked the excitement of rifling our packs and perhaps
cutting our throats ; but our resolute bearing and our
arms probably prevented attack. They were dressed no

90 YAKS AND LAMAS.

longer in skins, but in blue and white cotton cloths,
which had probably been woven in Manchester. Herds
of goats, sheep, and yaks pastured about their huts, and
the patches of level ground were waving with ripe
barley, oats, and buckwheat, showing that more peace-
able pursuits than robbery and kidnapping filled up
part at least of their time.

Then as we approached the "divide" between the
Salwen and the Mekong, we came at long intervals on
Thibetan grazing-farms and hamlets, and were able to
study how this secluded folk behave themselves at home.
The great two or three story houses, built of rough
stones, without mortar, looked like " border keeps "
— as they really are. The tall stature, strongly-marked
features, and abrupt gestures of the people ; the coarse
garments of sheep-skin, drawn in at the waist by a
belt in which at least one formidable knife was always
stuck; the strange nick-nacks of glass, turquoise, and
coral which they wore els charms or ornaments ; and the
big, fierce-looking dogs that slouched at their heels, were
all in thorough keeping with the houses. Within the
dwellings there were perhaps more dirt, and confusion,
and rude curiosity than we liked ; but the hearty good-
will and hospitality of the people made amends -for alL
We were regaled with milk, butter, cheese, eggs, and
tsamba unlimited ; and we could hardly prevail on these
mountain shepherds to take anything in payment. A

YAKS AND LAMAS. 91

sight of Hannibal's bare arm of ebony placed alongside
of our white skins was thought sufficient recompense,
and would make a whole company roar with laughter
for an hour.

We were warned, however, that it was all very plea-
sant so long as we were among the common people, but
that when we came across the lamas, who cherish a
fanatical hatred of our race and creed, we might " look
out for squalls." These lamas, as the reader may know,
dwell together, sometimes in communities of many thou-
sands, under a vow of. celibacy and in perpetual contem-
plation of the virtues of their great master, Buddha.
By all accounts, however, they are a sad set of rascals,
who live in ease and idleness on the toils of men more
ignorant but more honest than themselves, and who have
managed by degrees to gather all the power and wealth
of the country into their hands. The cunning knaves
fear that if foreign commerce found its way into the
country their day would be done, and hence their deter-
mination to turn back every stranger from their fron-
tiers.

We had some doubts as to our welcome when we
learned that another day's march would bring us to a
lamissary highly reputed for the sanctity and learning
of its inmates. By rare good fortune, however, we were
able to possess ourselves of the means of getting
into the good graces of the suspicious monks. We

92 YAKS AND LAMAS.

were informed at a Thibetan hamlet that a party of
wild yaks, led by a bull of extraordinary size, had been
seen lately roving on the slopes of the neighbouring
snowy mountain. The doctor resolved to set out in
chase, as he had a special wish to study the peculiarities
of the wild breed.

Scouts brought in news that the yaks were feeding
in a grassy valley in a mass of mountains three or four
miles oiF, and partly in the direction in which we were
moving. We learned that at the head of the glen there
was a pass over the mountain at some distance above the
snow-line ; and our plan of action was to send a party
of our Thibetan friends, who were easily tempted by the
prospect of fresh meat to join the enterprise, to disturb
the animals and head them up the valley. They would
be almost sure to endeavour to escape over the pass ; and
here, it was arranged, we should lie in wait to intercept
them.

We started at an unearthly hour in the morning, and
after a most fatiguing climb reached our posts before the
day was far advanced. Here we watched long without
any sign of a reward for our trouble. There was no
shelter, and in spite of our warm fur coverings we found
it terribly chilly work waiting among the snow, more
especially as the thick clouds of vapour that rolled about
us shut out our view of the world below.

" This is the coldest job we have had yet, and I can't

YAKS AND LAMAS. 93

wonder that even yaks don't like to come up so high,"
Tom said, rubbing his numbed hands and stamping his
feet, while the rest of us also hopped about as if we
were executing a new figure in a country dance.

" Hush ! " said Hannibal, who had an extremely quick
sense of hearing ; " t'ink I heah dat big fellow grunt.
Ha ! ha ! you jes' come up heah, will you, and get some-
fing to grunt for."

We listened, and after a little heard an angry snort
like that of a steam-engine, followed by a deep, hoarse,
lowing note that might have been mistaken for distant
thunder, and by the faint shouts of the beaters. After
a brief interval, which, however, seemed to us eager
stalkers an age, an immense shaggy head and shoulders
rose over the crest of the hill, and a pair of fiery eyes
glared around. It was the big bull himself, and a
splendid fellow he looked indeed, as he stood for a few
seconds petrified with rage and astonishment at the sight
of us. The doctor might have got a long shot at him at
that moment, but he waited in expectation of the bull
coming nearer. My three companions were posted in
front of the low pass ; while I had taken my station a
little to the left, in case the herd should head ofi" in that
direction. I had brought with me an old-fashioned rest,
borrowed from our Kashgaree fellow-travellers, and on
this I now placed the barrel of my rifle, and with a
heart thumping with excitement dropped down on one

94 YAKS AND LAMAS.

knee behind it. This curious movement seemed to de-
cide the bull. With a furious roar he charged straight
towards me ; while his companions, following his lead,
crested the brow of the hill, and bore down upon us like
a wave of tossing horns, tails, and manes. Our chief
had always strictly charged us against the barbarous
sport of wantonly destroying the wild game for killing's
sake, and in the present CEise he had only wished to
secure the big male. We were now, however, left with
no choice, and shot after shot resounded in the hills.

As for myself, my whole attention was taken up with
the monster bull, who seemed in a desperate hurry to
make my acquaintance. When he was within fifty
yards I fired. The shot struck him on the shoulder, but
rather low, and he fell bellowing loudly among the snow.
With all the haste I was capable of, I pushed another
cartridge into the breach, and stopped just in time, with
a bullet through the heart, one of the consorts of the
mighty bull as she came pounding down upon me. Mean-
while, the lord of the herd had struggled to his feet, stag-
gered forward some yards, and stood the picture of bafiled
rage — his grand front and spreading horns thrown high
in the air, and his eyes blazing with wrath, lashing with
his tail his shaggy sides, and pawing with his hoofs the
snow that was stained with his blood. I drew the
trigger of the second barrel, and with hardly a groan he
fell dead " in his tracks."

YAKS AND LAMAS. 9t

My companions had been equally successful in stop-
ping the charge of the younger bull and his mates, who,
after each receiving a shot in a vital place, had turned
and attempted to escape before getting their final coup.

Hardly was this brisk incident over when the beaters
appeared at the head of the pass, and great was their
rejoicing over our achievement ; but for ourselves, I
think a feeling of regret at having deprived so many
splendid, vigorous creatures of life was almost above our
sportsman's triumph.

Having possessed ourselves of the big bull's head, and
with as much yak's flesh as we cared to bring away
with us, we presented two of the carcasses to our assist-
ants as a recompense for their help, reserving the others
as a timely present for the inmates of the lamissary,
which could be reached in three hours' ride from the
spot where our adventure occurred. On the route we
were rejoined by our travelling companions, the Kash-
garee merchants, who listened to the details of our hunt
with no other response than a solemn " Allah be praised!"
at the close. They did not appear to have a large share
of the sportsman feeling themselves, and indeed we be-
gan to suspect that they were not much of traders
either, and to wonder what were really the contents of
the strange packages and bales that they carried with
them. If I have said little about them hitherto, it has
been because I had little to tell. They coldly repelled

96 YAKS AND LAMAS.

our attempts to " fraternize " with them, and though
they were pleased enough with our companionship so
long as we were exposed to attack from the robber tribes,
they seemed to feel our presence become more em-
barrassing with every mile that brought us nearer to
the frontier of China. There was certainly something
mysterious about their journey and the excellent
understanding that existed between them and the
Thibetans. But Khodja Akbar Khan, the chief of the
party, a grave personage with deeply-marked, sinister-
looking features, and a flowing black beard edged with
gray, looked the last person in the world to let a secret
slip from him, and, judging by a fanatical gleam that
now and then shone in his eyes, he would probably have
felt more at his ease cutting oflT the heads of " infidels "
like ourselves than in travelling quietly in their com-
pany. His two chief associates appeared to be com-
pletely under subjection to him, and their half-dozen
attendants were as silent as mutes.

Meanwhile it was plain that we were approaching the
precincts of the lamissary. We had already seen many
signs of the Buddhist faith and worship since we had come
into this country. Every other person we met carried
a little cylinder, which he kept twirling round, muttering
at the same time something half below his breath. At
the door of each dwelling stood one and often several
larger cylinders of the same type, and every one that

THIBETAN WITH HIS PR A Y I NQ- M I LL.

Page g6.

YAKS AND LAMAS. 97

passed out or in gave the wheel a turn for the benefit of
the household. On the summits of the rocks we observed
other specimens of these prayer-mills — for such they were
— driven by the wind ; while at the crossings of streams
we invariably found a little water-wheel revolving with
the current, and enclosing a cylinder written over with the
strange characters that met our eyes wherever we went.
At every pass over the mountains we came upon what
in our own Highlands at home would be called a cairn,
made up of stones left there by faithful devotees of the
Yellow Religion in gratitude for having escaped thus far
the perils of the way, and to propitiate the favour of the
evil spirits of the hills ; and on each stone the mystic
letters were inscribed. From the trees by the wayside,
and at the end of long wands hung like fishing-rods
over the streams, fluttered scraps of paper or cloth with
the pious formula repeated upon them, so that a breath
of wind could not blow without wafting to heaven
thousands of prayers from the wayfarers that had passed
over this road. The great sanctity of the monastery
we were about to visit was shown by the lines that
stretched across the ravine which led up to its gates,
and from which dangled innumerable rags of silk or
oiled paper, scribbled over with prayers ; and the rocks
on both sides were carved wjth the never-ending
petition.

We began to meet the inmates of the monastery

(080) 7

98 YAKS AND LAMAS.

walking singly or in twos and threes — tall, strange-
looking figures, generally dressed in long gowns of red
or green serge, with a yellow scarf across the shoulders,
and red boots. Their heads were shaven ; and under-
neath their black eyebrows they cast disdainful and
suspicious glances at us as we passed. Around their
necks they wore strings of coral beads like rosaries, and
each carried in his hand a little prayer- wheel, which he
assiduously twirled while he mumbled his litany. They
may have been learned and pious men, but there could
be no question that they were deplorably dirty.

" What do these fellows mean by continually mut-
tering, 'Niminy-piminy, niminy-piminy,' sir?" asked
Tom the querist, turning to our usual source for infor-
mation, as we rode up towards the gate of a great pile
of blind-looking buildings that now came in sight, and that
might have been mistaken for an old feudal " strength "
but for the gilded roof rising in the centre, with gables
turned up at the corners, like those we had seen in
pictures of Chinese pagodas.

" I daresay it sounds more like * niminy-piminy* than
anything else," said Dr. Roland, smiling, " and has about
as much meaning to them. They intend to say, ' Om
mani pemi hom.' "

"And what does ' Om mani pemi hom' mean, then?"

" It means, ' Oh, the jewel in the lotus.' "

" But," said Tom, looking more puzzled than before,

YAKS AND LAMAS. 99

" I don't see that that makes it much plainer. What is
* the jewel in the lotus ' ? "

"Nay, you have cornered me now, Tom," said our
friend ; " whole Ubraries of books have been written
about it, and instead of making it plainer they have
only made the mystery more profound. Every syllable
has been taken to pieces, and every letter dissected, and
the strangest and most contradictory meanings discovered
hidden in them. I have no doubt our friends there,"
pointing to a group that were busily twirling their
wheels, "have the whole controversy at their finger-
ends, like the prayer itself. It is the universal petition
of the votaries of Buddha, and is supposed to be a
prayer for that perfection of life which will admit them,
after passing through millions of changes, into Nirvana
— the state of total unconsciousness which is their sad
notion of heaven and future bliss. You may be sure
that at any given moment this mystic prayer is being
repeated by hundreds of thousands of lips in Buddhist
lands."

I am not sure whether the doctor's explanation made
us much the wiser, and we were still struggling to com-
prehend it when we halted at the gate of the lamissary.
Notice had been sent of our coming, and the chief lama,
with his principal officers, was in waiting for us, most
gorgeously dressed in robes of red and yellow, and his
head crowned with an immense gilded hat. He was a

100 YAKS AND LAMAS.

weazened-faced old man, whose expression of features
spoke more of cunning and meanness than of benevo-
lence. I thought I caught a look of intelligence ex-
changed between him and Khodja Akbar, whose arrival
did not seem to surprise him, and then he turned
towards us with an air that did not bode any good-
will. On Dr. Roland coming forward, however, and
explaining, as we gathered from his gestures, — for he
spoke in Chinese, — the handsome addition we had pro-
vided for the larder of the monastery, the old bonze's
mien underwent a wonderful change, and his features
puckered up into a smile that was meant to be affable.
It is against the strict rules of the order to partake of
the flesh of any animal, for according to the Buddhist
belief it may have harboured the soul of some of their dead
ancestors ; but in these remote mountains the monks do
not keep their vows very strictly. So our present was
graciously accepted, and a party of men and mules was
hastily despatched to the pass to bring away the car-
casses of the yaks before they would be discovered by
the gaunt Thibetan wolves, while we were ushered into
the interior of the lamissary.

We found ourselves in a spacious courtyard, sur-
rounded on three sides by the living-rooms of the lamas,
with a great temple, highly decorated and gilt, facing
us. After being shown the lodging which we were to
occupy for the night, we were taken into the temple,

YAKS AND LAMAS. 101

where a huge brazen statue of Buddha was the chief
object, and was surrounded by altars of offering, barbar-
ous musical instruments, and carved dragons and other
fantastic figures. The walls were painted with strange
pictures and devices in glaring colours, while in recesses
were rows of small figures of Buddha in solid gold, rolls
of manuscript, and other treasures. Here, by direction,
we deposited our principal valuables under the care of
the presiding deity. We noticed that even here great
deference was paid by the Buddhist priests to our
Mussulman companions, though what could be the bond
of union between people so widely separated by race
and creed we could not imagine. It could not be love,
for I noticed that on leaving the temple Khodja Akbar
spat on the ground in token of his abhorrence of the
idolaters — though the Buddhists deny that they are idol-
worshippers, and say that the figures in their temples
are only memorials in honour of their great teacher.
The insult was noticed by one of our lama guides, and I
shall not easily forget the look of concentrated hate that
he darted at the offender.

We were afterwards served with an ample meal, in
which the unfailing tsamba and buttered tea formed the
principal dishes ; but there was also a variety of small
cakes and confections, in the making of which the monks
showed not a little skill and taste. Our Mussulman
fellow-travellers, as usual, ate apart. They retired early

102 YAKS AND LAMAS.

from the guest-chamber ; and as it was slow work ex-
changing ideas with the monks by means of signs, we
were not long in following their example.

The sun was shining brightly in the courtyard when
we awakened next morning, the early hour at which we
had been up the previous day, and the toils and excite-
ment of the yak hunt, having caused all of us to over-
sleep our usual hour of rising. To our surprise we found,
on making inquiry of the monks, that Khodja Akbar and
his company had left before we were up, without taking
the trouble of saying good-bye. More than that, the
gate of the lamissary was not only closed, but a goodly
number of the inmates were gathered about it, as if to
bar any attempt to pass through. We could see from
the doctor's looks that he was very uneasy and anxious
to get off. A plot of some kind was being woven, and
we had got entangled in the meshes against our will.
Luckily we had resisted the pressing offers of the lamas
to take charge of our weapons for us, so that at the
worst we were well armed. Dr. Roland asked to see
the chief lama, and he came to us with a face that had
lost all the forced amiability that it wore yesterday. In
fact, without understanding the words he addressed to
our chief, we could notice distinctly a tone of insolence
in his voice, which grew gradually more marked as the
conversation proceeded. We waited anxiously for the
upshot, feeling that some dangerous crisis was approach-

YAKS AND LAMAS. 103

ing. The doctor seemed to begin by offering thanks
for the hospitality we had received, and a cahn request
that we should now be allowed to bid good-bye to our
hosts. The lama replied in mocking accents, and as the
doctor proceeded to repeat his request more firmly, the
high priest appeared to give an emphatic refusal ; while
the men with whom the courtyard was filled drew
nearer in a threatening manner as they heard words
rising high. We, also, while hiding our anxiety as much
as we could, began to get our weapons ready ; for we
suspected that though the shedding of blood was for-
bidden to the brotherhood, they were capable of finding
means of making away with troublesome visitors that
would satisfy their consciences on that score.

Dr. Roland appeared to make up his mind that it
was time to act with energy. Drawing his revolver —
a six-chambered one — from his belt, he glanced round
the enclosure until his eye fell on an immense gong that
hung near the convent gate. The sight of it probably
reminded him of the capital practice that he had made
at Hannibal's saucepan, and taking aim at it as at a
target, he fired G.yQ shots in quick succession, drilling as
many holes through the sounding brass in a way that
must have sadly marred its after performances. Then,
while we brought our rifles to our shoulders, he turned
on the mob of lamas that had been hurrying up from
all sides, but who now fled helter-skelter, tripping over

104 YAKS AND LAMAS.

each other and on the hems of their long gowns in their
haste to get out of the way of the terrible little weapon.
The chief lama alone held his ground, but his yellow,
wrinkled face was so convulsed with fear and surprise
that it was quite comical to see. He had some notion
of the power of the gun, — indeed, an old-fashioned
flintlock is one of the regular arms of the Thibetan
soldier, — but this marvellous article, with the magical
property of firing without needing to be loaded,
was new to him, and he evidently believed that the
doctor held in his hand the lives of himself and all his
convent. When, therefore, he heard the request to bring
out our mules and to throw open the gate repeated in
stern tones, with the revolver pointed at his head, he
sulkily gave the necessary command to his underlings,
who hastened to obey the order, plainly more anxious
now to see us beyond their walls than they had been a
little before to retain us.

In a minute or two we were again mounted on our
long-eared but sagacious steeds, retreating in triumph
with our baggage, which had not escaped some pillaging,
though we did not care just then to examine narrowly
the extent, and pursued at a safe distance by yells,
curses, and stones from our hospitable entertainers of
the previous evening.

CHAPTER VIII.

ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

OR several hours we rode on with scarcely any-
other purpose in view than to put as wide a
distance as possible between us and our late
hosts. Several roads, or rather bridle-tracks, led away
in different directions from the lamissary. We chose the
one that the doctor's pocket-compass told us agreed the
most closely with the line we wished to follow — namely,
towards the south-east. I cannot, of course, tell whether
the others were as rough and steep, but if they were, I
do not believe that the lamas can much enjoy riding
exercise. A path more bare, desolate, and savage as to
surroundings, or more narrow, slippery, and rugged under
foot,' we had not yet traversed. The sun glared strongly
upon us as we crossed a patch of open country, or
scrambled and slipped along a broken mountain-side ;
while down in the deep gorges into which we plunged
ever and anon, we had difliculty in making out the
path. Still, we hastened on with all the speed our nags

106 ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

were capable of, occasionally discussing eagerly the ex-
citing scene in which we had just taken part, and the
motives that could have prompted the lamas to keep us
prisoners, but more often silent ; for the roughness of
the track generally compelled us to ride in Indian file,
and to keep all our wits about us. Soon after losing
sight of the lamissary the signs of cultivation and in-
habitants disappeared, and for some time we had been
wandering through a region that seemed utterly deserted
by man and beast.

As the sun got low in the heavens the doctor drew
rein in a little green valley, where our hungry animals
at once began to nibble the clover and grass. We were
glad to fling ourselves down on the sward, thoroughly
exhausted with the toils of the day.

" I don't know if we will find any place more snug
than where we are," remarked our leader, " though by
my reckoning we cannot be far from the great Mekong
river. Our friends the lamas will hardly care to come
so far to fetch us back, and I think we may camp here
pretty safe from pursuit."

"Is. the country uninhabited, sir, that we have seen
neither men nor houses for the last few hours ? " I in-
quired.

" My notion is that we are in the border-land between
Thibetan and Chinese territory," said the doctor ; " and
like other border-lands in barbarous countries, it is not

ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 107

a quarter to choose for leading a quiet life. I would
not have thought you would be so anxious, Bob, to meet
with your fellow-men after the little experience you had
with the Mishmis and the Lu-tze, not to mention our
entertainers of this morning. I am surprised, though,
that we have met with no roving banditti, for in this
country a troop of these rascals is usually to be found
between the settled districts. We must keep our eyes
" well skinned " to-night, and not let sleep get the better
of us, as it did this morning when we allowed Khodja
Akbar and his company to slip away unperceived."

" Have you any idea where he has gone ? "

" I should not like to venture a guess about a per-
sonage so mysterious ; but it is plain that he has not
travelled by this road, otherwise, at the speed we have
travelled, we would have overtaken him and his com-
pany. Between ourselves, I should not be sorry if we
have seen the last of them."

" You needn't cook anything for me to-night, Hanni-
bal," said Tom, trying to put the best face on it; "I feel
too tired to eat."

" Berry lucky dat is, Massa Tom," replied the negro
dryly : " couldn't gib you anyt'ing if you asked for it."

" It was a pity we let those fellows have all these
juicy yak-steaks, wasn't it ? " pursued Tom, with a mis-
chievous twinkle in his eye.

The question was too much for Hannibal's composure.

108 ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

Visions of the whole unwashed crowd of lamas feasting
on the " roast and boiled " which we had provided for
them, while his dear master had not a morsel to eat,
rose before him, and he shook his fist fiercely in the
direction from whence we had come.

" Don't see any more bears hidin' around, Massa Bob?"
he asked, after recovering his good humour.

Involuntarily I glanced along the slope of the hill
above, and fancied I caught a glimpse of some dark-
looking object suddenly withdrawing from sight behind
a mass of rock. I called the attention of my companions
to the spot, and we prepared cautiously to examine it
more closely. This could hardly be a bear, and the idea
that occurred to us was that it was some spy watching
our movements, whether in the interests of robbers,
lamas, or Mussulman traders remained to be seen. As
we ascended the hill, the figure of a man rose from be-
hind the rock and drew near to us, with a singular mix-
ture of eager curiosity and of hesitation in his manner.
From his features and other signs, including tattoo-marks
on his cheeks, we judged him to belong to the same race
of savages whom we had seen scattered by the Thibetans
on the other side of the Salwen. But in the new-comer
all the harsh traits were subdued and refined. He was
decently and cleanly clad also, in blue cotton jacket and
wide trousers ; and altogether there was a certain air of
civilization about him which we hardly expected to meet

ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 109

with in such a spot. You may judge if our surprise
was diminished when, having approached within a few
paces of us, he looked anxiously from face to face, and
then rapidly made the sign of the cross, such as is prac-
tised in Roman Catholic countries.

The doctor, however, appeared to have a clue to the
mystery that puzzled us so greatly, and entered into a
conversation with the native, who, by means of signs
and a few words of Chinese and French, led our con-
ductor to understand that his dwelling was close at
hand, and that he would be glad to conduct us thither.
The offer was made with a friendly cordiality that con-
vinced the doctor that it was made in good faith ; and
in a few minutes we had draorored our stiff limbs into the
saddle, and, with the stranger as our guide, were again
climbing rocky hills and threading stony passes. In
about a quarter of an hour we came upon the upper end
of a pretty, winding valley, that, with fine trees shad-
ing the small stream flowing through the centre, and a
few sheep and goats pasturing on the slopes that rose
gently on either side, had a charmingly peaceful and
inviting aspect after the rugged and toilsome ways by
which we had reached this haven of rest. A neat
cottage, surrounded by a few fruit trees, with a little
garden in front containing vegetables and even a few
flowers, occupied a sheltered nook in the valley. To
this the guide led us, and motioned us to dismount ; and

110 ASTKAY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

while our mules began to crop the grass, we seated our-
selves under the shady porch of the hut.

Our host disappeared inside, and presently came forth
with a huge wooden bowl filled with rich goat's milk,
and a pile of crisp barley cakes, which, with a gesture
of welcome, he laid before us. Then with a natural
feeling of good breeding he withdrew into the back-
ground beside his wife, whose shyness would not allow
her to come forward, though we could see that in dress
and looks she was as unlike her wild unkempt kindred as
her husband. It made me almost ashamed, after listen-
ing to his declaration a few minutes before that he had
no appetite, to see the way in which Tom Wilson
" tucked into " the milk and cakes. But the rest of us
were not a whit behind him ; and the bowl, which had
seemed bottomless, was emptied at last. Then after we
had rested a little, the master of the hut, whose name,
it turned out, was Nga-te, signed to us that it was time
to resume the march ; and rather wonderingly — for we
had counted on passing the night in this pleasant spot —
we prepared to follow him down the valley.

On the way he explained to us that a wise and good
man of our nation had come among the wild robber
tribes of this district, and after years of labour and dis-
appointment, had persuaded them to lay aside their
savage habits and their wandering life, and to settle down
around him in this valley, where they now dwelt peace-

ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS. Ill

ably and pleasantly, tilling the ground and tending their
flocks, instead of fighting and plundering. He had
taught them beautiful lessons of mutual love and for-
bearance out of a book ; but it was chiefly by his ex-
ample of self-denying kindness, patience, and gentleness,
that they had become devoted to him, as our guide
appeared to be, heart and soul. Nga had been searching
on the hills for a stray goat when he first noticed us.
Something about our appearance gave him the notion
that we were of the same race as his pastor, and the
longer he watched us he grew the more convinced of the
fact, and he was about to steal away and warn the
settlement of our coming when we observed him.

Thus discoursing, chiefly by signs, we passed several
other cottages, embowered in leaves and with little
patches of cultivated ground about them, the occupants of
which came to their doors and saluted us with respectful
interest, no doubt wondering what manner of people we
were and whence we had come.

At a sudden turn in the bed of the valley a lovely
scene broke upon us. At our feet was a steep
descent, down which the brook at our side bickered
in a series of cascades, overhung with masses of beauti-
ful ferns, and by fine trees that were beginning to put
on their autumn dress. Below, the hills receded on
either side, and the vale opened up to meet a mighty
stream, whose turbid current ran like a broad yellow

112 ASTRAY IN THE MOUNTAINS.

band across the landscape. This could be none other
than the famous Mekong, the great river of Cambodia,
whose course, from its unvisited source in the northern
deserts of Thibet to its mouth in the Chinese Sea, pro-
bably rivals that of some of the longest rivers on earth.
On this rolling flood, overshadowed on the opposite
shore by lofty pine-clad peaks that dipped their feet in
the water, we gazed for some seconds in awe, though as
yet we little dreamed of the perils and sufferings that
we were to encounter on its bosom. Then we turned
our eyes on the scene immediately below us. A score
of houses, mere cabins in size, but neatly thatched and
arranged with some sense of order and taste, were
grouped about a building of rather larger dimensions,
near which was a little chapel surmounted by a cross.
Fruit trees, most of them of kinds which you are familiar
with in the temperate zone, grew thickly about the
dwellings, and trailing plants covered their walls. So
close were we to them that we could make out the ripe
apples, peaches, and apricots shining among the foliage.
Around the village were fields of ripe or ripening barley,
wheat, and maize ; and down near the river were dark
and light tinted plots, which our Assam experience told
us must be " paddy " or rice-fields. The desolate moun-
tains that surrounded the scene, like the frame of a
picture, only made this green and peaceful little Eden
look more refreshing and inviting to us weary travellers.

CHAPTER IX.

A HAVEN OF REST.

EAVING our mules in charge of the villagers,
who testified as much delight as astonish-
ment at our arrival, we hastened to the
house of the missionary, wishing, if possible, to take him
by surprise. We were not disappointed in this ; for on
looking over the trim beech hedge that surrounded his
garden, we found him absorbed in the care of his plants,
and all unconscious that such guests were at hand. The
carefully-propped fruit-trees and the alleys of rhododen-
dron and tall box cast a shade most tempting for people
who had been so long exposed to scorching sun and cut-
ting winds. The rustic seat under the veranda, over-
hung with broad vine leaves and clusters of purple
grapes, seemed made for jaded limbs to repose upon.
The flowers and ferns, the cool-looking little spring of
water in the centre ornamented with pebbles and aquatic
plants, the glimpse we got through the open window of
books and writing materials, all spoke of a cultivated

(690) 8

114 A HAVEN OF REST.

taste. But most attractive of all was the worthy pastor
himself, as, ignorant of our scrutiny, he bent earnestly
over his task of weeding his plants. His rather tall and
dignified figure was clad in flowing cotton garments,
which in cut were a compromise between the Chinese
and European fashions. He was considerably past the
middle age ; and time and care had ploughed some
wrinkles on the broad forehead and smoothly-shaven
cheeks. The general expression of the face was one of
winning goodness ; but the full dark eyes seemed
capable of giving a stern glance, and the kind-looking
lips of being compressed with a look of energy and
decision.

" Bonjour, M. I'Abb^" said the doctor, in his heartiest
tones.

The Abb^ Ducrot — for such we learned was the name
and ecclesiastical rank of the excellent French missionary
— started at hearing so unexpectedly the accents of his
native tongue. He looked up quickly, and his eyes
meeting the black grinning features of Hannibal, who
happened to be directly in his " line of vision," the Dutch
hoe which he was using dropped from his hands in his
amazement. I am not sure whether the good man's first
idea was not that he was about to be assailed by the
Evil One ; and if this notion was dispelled on glancing
at the other members of the party, the youthful faces
of Tom and myself, and the bronzed features and the

A HAVEN OF REST. 115

ample beard of Dr. Roland, appearing as if by magic just
above the level of his garden hedge, were in themselves
bewildering enough. A few words from our leader,
however, explained how matters stood, and M. Ducrot
hastened to us, welcoming us with the warmth of an old
friend, and with a charming courtesy of manner, as if we
were honoured and long-expected guests.

As the sun had now set, and the nights are cold at
this season, we did not linger long outside ; and for the
«ame reason, when we had been ushered into the good
priest's dwelling, we were glad to gather round the stove,
while our host lighted his lamp, and bustled about, with
the aid of a native pupil and Hannibal, to lay the re-
sources of his bachelor establishment at our disposal.
After our performances at Nga's, we were not able to do
so much justice to the good father's fare as it deserved
or as he would have liked. We preferred to revel in
the luxury of being again surrounded by all the signs
of civilized life. Everything looked so home-like that
we might almost have been seated in a snug English
study. The light shone on well -filled book -shelves
ranged round the walls, and a white table-cloth, with
knives, forks, and glasses, actually graced the board.
Still more surprising was it, perhaps, to see the abb^
bring forth a box of prime havannahs, which he smilingly
tendered to the doctor. Our host did not smoke him-
self, but some of his friends at Shanghai had forwarded

116 A HAVEN OF REST.

to him this present, which he would be delighted if his
guest could find use for.

This led them on to speak of the European society
at Shanghai, which Dr. Koland had visited, and where
he had picked up the smattering of Chinese he possessed.
Our host, in order to give us lads the benefit of the con-
versation, good-naturedly spoke in English, which he
talked with much fluency. But it did not need this to
make us feel as if we were in the presence of a country-
man— though, of course, M. Ducrot was not only of dif-
ferent race but of another creed than ours. But away
in this remote region, surrounded by savage and hostile
peoples, the distinction between Frenchman and English-
man, stanch Protestant and zealous Romanist, so great
as that seemed in Europe, was of comparatively little
account. Last evening we were in an atmosphere that
was loaded with danger and suspicion. Hate and preju-
dice were barely covered by a thin show of hospitality,
and everything was petty, false, and base. To-night we
breathed again freely. All was frank, manly, kindly,
and honest, and we understood the difference between
Christian Europe and benighted Asia.

To our host we were like messengers from another
planet, and he eagerly questioned us as to the great
public events, the discoveries in science, and the move-
ments in literature and art, since he last had tidings
from the outer world ; and on all these matters Dr.

A HAVEN OF REST. 117

Roland was able fully to satisfy him. We recounted
our adventures, and presented him with some scraps of
old "home" newspapers which we found among our
packages. The news in them was three months old, but
a year had passed since he had heard from Europe,
and he accepted them more eagerly than if they had
been crisp bank-notes. In return he told us something
of his own experiences in fouMiing this flourishing little
colony. It was a history of heroism and devotion, better
worth recording than that of our own aimless wander-
ings, but too long to be inserted here. Even now, when
success had so far crowned his efforts, he could not tell
when misfortune might come, " like a bolt from the
blue," through the hatred of the lamas, the jealousy of
the Chinese officials, or the outbreak of civil war, and
ruin all his labours.

This led the abb^ and our chief to discuss at great
length the circumstances of the land and the times ; and
though the rest of the party did not understand half of
what these seniors talked about, we knew that they had
found a clue to the mysterious conduct of Khodja Akbar
and the people of the monastery. They spoke of China
as decrepit and feeble, like some huge giant whom age
and disease had made almost helpless. The outbreak
of Mohammedan and other rebellions in different parts
of the empire had, a few years before, threatened to break
up the Flowery Land into discordant fragments, and it had

118 A HAVEN OF REST.

only recovered its unity after a terrible effort. In the
province in which we had now arrived — Yunnan — civil
war had raged for nearly a generation; a Mussulman
kingdom had been founded and destroyed amid incredible
bloodshed. Flourishing cities had been razed to the
ground, and by battle, massacre, famine, and pestilence
six-sevenths of the population had been swept away.
The province, M. Ducrot told us, had no sooner begun to
recover from its exhaustion than disturbances were ready
to break out again. Reports had come to him of new
risings of the Panthays — as the Mussulman rebels were
called — in the country beyond the river. The lamas
were eager to throw off the yoke of Pekin, and would
gladly encourage the insurgents.

Our seniors had no doubt that Khodja Akbar, instead
of being a " trader," was none other than a Mohammedan
" mullah," or priest, charged with the task of stirring up
the smouldering zeal of the followers of the prophet, and
probably the bearer of important tidings from some other
disaffected portion of the wide dominions of the "Brother
of the Sun and Father of the Moon." They were also of
opinion that we could not safely carry out our intention
of proceeding through China, with the certainty of fall-
ing into the clutches of the " white flags " or the " red
flags," — the Imperialists or the Panthays, — or into those of
the brigands. Then the question arose, What other route
was open to us ? The most feasible seemed to be one

A HAVEN OF REST. 119

that led to Bhamo, on the Upper Irrawady, in the territory
of His Majesty of the Golden Foot. But even in making
for Biirmah we would meet " lions on the way," in the
shape of robbers, rebels, and savages, not to mention
lofty mountains and deep rivers.

The doctor suggested the great river, whose hoarse
roar we could hear without, as a means of escape from
our predicament. The abb^ shook his head.

"Frenchmen have found it impossible to follow up
that most intractable stream further than the Chinese
frontier," he said, with a touch of national pride. " I
acknowledge the great qualities of your countrymen, M.
le Docteur — their courage, their perseverance, and their
energy — but I cannot admit that they will succeed where
my own compatriots have failed."

"But though Frenchmen were unable to ascend the
river in the rainy season, might not Frenchmen have
succeeded in descending it in the season favourable
for travel ? And may not Englishmen ? " replied the
doctor, a little amused.

" That is true," said the excellent missionary, smiling ;
" but," he added, " you are a weak party, and will be
almost at the mercy of the turbulent and barbarous
tribes that dwell on the river."

"Yes; but we are humble travellers, and not im-
portant personages, with grand schemes in their heads
of opening up an unwilling empire to trade, and so we

120 A HAVEN OF REST.

may escape some of the troublesome notice that greater
folks have met with. At any rate, it will be well to
have the river to fall back upon."

" True, also," said the abbe ; and thus closed the first
of many conversations we had on this and kindred sub-
jects, for we had already talked far into the night.

We spent a delightful week at Ping-wan-chin, and
ourselves and our beasts rapidly recruited from our
fatigues. Nothing could exceed the kindness of the
abbe, or the goodwill and helpfulness of the villagers.
We were not idle either. The doctor's notion of rest
included several hours a day of botanizing and geologiz-
ing, surveying the hills, gauging the volume of the river,
and similar work. We had even a few mild adventures
in climbing the beetling cliffs on the margin of the
Mekong, and exploring the woods ; and one day we had
quite a dangerous " sensation." It happened in this way.
We had been busy all day scrambling over rocks, and
collecting mineral, plant, and animal specimens ; and in
the quiet of the afternoon, previous to starting for home,
we rested for half an hour. Dr. Roland had perched
himself on a ledge of rock that overlooked a wide extent
of country ; and after having made an outline sketch of
the hills and valleys that the view commanded, was now
thoughtfully smoking one of M. Ducrot's cigars, while
Mandarin, a young Thibetan dog belonging to the abbe,
had fallen asleep at his feet, tired with several hours of

A HAVEN OF KEST. 121

racing and chasing. Not far off I was stretched at full
length on a juniper bush, enjoying its fragrant odour,
so suggestive of " my native heath," and watching the
frantic efforts of a beetle with a burnished-copper back
to climb up a slippery piece of rock. In fact, I fear I
was letting my thoughts bear me away into a kind of
day-dream, when I fancied I heard a pebble fall.
Looking down into the little gully that separated me
from the doctor, to my horror I saw a great mountain
leopard, which had stolen up to within a few yards of
him, and seemed in the act of contracting its muscles to
make a spring. My tongue seemed to be paralyzed with
fear, and before I could utter a word, a little puff of
smoke rose within a few yards of me, accompanied with
the report of a rifle, and the leopard rolled over in the
convulsions of death. It was Tom, who, more careful
than myself, had kept his gun loaded near his hand,
and who had managed just in time to send a bullet
crashing through the great cat's skull.

You should have seen how the doctor and Mandarin
started up, the one from reverie and the other from
sleep, and how the latter barked and growled over the
body, as if he had the whole credit of the performance,
while our chief came up and shook Tom warmly by the
hand. I also grasped the dear fellow's fist hard, with
feelings of deep thankfulness for what he had done, and
with reproachful regret that I also had not been found

122 A HAVEN OF REST.

on guard and ready for the emergency. Hannibal said
little, but he looked at Tom in a way that said as plainly
as words that he owed him a good turn, which he would
take the earliest possible chance of repaying. The
animal Tom had shot was a female, and a search of the
neighbourhood threw light on the extreme boldness she
had shown; for in a recess in the rocks, not many paces
off, we came upon three very young leopard cubs, whose
lives the mother had evidently believed to be in jeo-
pardy. We brought home the cubs, which were about
the size of half -grown kittens, and prettily marked ; and
M. Ducrot was to try the experiment of rearing them.
We have not heard since what was their fate.

The day had now come when we had to bid farewell
to our kind host and the many friends we had made in
the village. A longer stay with them was not unlikely to
bring the settlement into trouble ; and we had not any
time to spare, if we were to make use of the most suit-
able season for travelling. The doctor left his scientific
gleanings in charge of the abb^ who in turn loaded us
with everything he imagined would be useful, while his
flock also brought their goodwill oflferings. They gathered
together to assist in packing our mules, and to see us
depart ; and, as they had learned from their pastor, they
shouted " Bon voyage ! " after us as we rode slowly
away. Our rest in this happy valley among these
simple, kindly folks had been very grateful to us. It

A HAVEN OF REST. 123

was like a half-way house where we had found shelter
and a welcome in a tempest, and we felt sad at heart as
we prepared to plunge again into the storm. The excel-
lent priest seemed at least as sorry to part with us. He
accompanied us some distance beyond the village ; and
when at last he shook our hands at leaving, I think I
saw moisture in his eyes. I am not sure, however, as
my own were not very clear at the time.

CHAPTER X.

AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

F I were to mention the outlandish names of
half the places that we passed or where we
halted during the next few stages of our
journey, or to describe the hills we climbed, the defiles
we threaded, the streams we crossed, and the strange
customs and dresses of the people we came in contact
with, the patience of the most gentle of readers might
be worn out. At first we followed as closely as we
could down the banks of the great Mekong, and the
roar of its turbulent waters was never long out of our
ears. The road was still an endless succession of ascents
and descents ; but we began to think — perhaps it was
that our eyes were getting accustomed to heights
and depths — that the mountains were not so lofty nor
the valleys between them quite so profound as those we
had left behind us. There seemed to be more level
ground, and there certainly were more people and cul-
tivation. The hill-tops grew more rounded and grassy.

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 125

and the slopes of the valleys were less steep, and were
covered with beautiful woods of pine, oak, chestnut, and
other trees.

Sometimes the trees were scattered over a rolling
sward, singly or in clumps, looking like an ornamental
English park, and there were not wanting troops of
deer and coveys of partridges and pheasants to complete
the resemblance. At the bottom of these green and
wooded glens, along the banks of the little tributary
streams, wooden cottages with vegetable gardens, orchards,
and tilled fields became not uncommon.

The doctor pointed out to us how the shaggy yaks
and coarse-wooled sheep that we had seen feeding on
the hills, guarded by rough-coated and loud-tongued
Thibetan shepherds, had disappeared. Their place was
taken by more domesticated-looking animals ; and the
people at work in the fields were dressed in light and
loose cotton garments, instead of sheep-skins and furs.
As we advanced southward, gradually descending, rice
and Indian corn superseded the thin barley, oats, and
rye, and plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco told
of a warmer climate. The white flowers of the poppy
plant, from which opium is manufactured, blazed in the
plains below us, and mulberry and tea trees showed
where silk or tea culture occupied a busy people. At
length a thicket of bamboos by the side of the river
warned us to keep on the alert for the " big game " of

126 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

the jungle — the tiger, the alligator, and the buffalo — as
we had fairly returned into tropical climes, after a
sojourn in the arctic regions.

The change in the faces and in the manners of the
people was even more wonderful. At first, at long inter-
vals, we came on little villages composed of a few huts of
stone, huddled together as if to keep each other warm,
and not unlike the Thibetan hamlets we had visited.
But the natives spoke neither Thibetan nor Chinese, nor
any other language that the doctor was acquainted with ;
and they lived under chiefs who appeared to care
nothing for either grand lama or emperor. They were
very kindly and hospitable to us, however ; and pro-
bably it was their picturesque costume, — jaunty little
hats perched on their heads, gaily-coloured jackets and
embroidered belts, and legs swathed in long rolls of
cloth, like Piedmontese peasants, — together with their
light shade of complexion and high, well-cut features of
almost a European cast, that made us feel more at home
among these half-barbarous tribes than we afterwards
did among people much more civilized.

When we left these villages, generally loaded with
presents from chiefs and people in exchange for the
small trinkets we were able to offer them, we found
we had bidden farewell to simplicity and homeliness.
The paths we now struck upon were still rough and
dangerous, but they were more frequented, and great

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 127

labour and cost had been expended upon them. Tunnels
were scooped along the sides of the gorges, and the road,
laid with great blocks of stone, was supported for many-
hundreds of yards over the abysses by great beams.
Bridges of stone arched the torrents ; and by-and-by we
came to a really important work of engineering, — a
suspension bridge, hung on heavy iron chains, and
crossing, in one span of two hundred feet, the chasm of
the Mekong. As there was no longer a track for us
along the right bank of the river, we crossed this
structure, leading our mules by the bridles, and holding
on firmly by the handrails; for the gusts that blew
down the gorge made the bridge swing most ominously,
and threatened to hurl us over into the muddy current
that boiled a hundred feet below us.

Leaving the river, our road then carried us into
districts that became gradually more civilized, and yet,
to Tom and me at least, more unfamiliar. There could
no longer be a doubt that we were fairly within the
strange world of China. If we had been suddenly
whisked away into another planet, or if a magician
had, by a wave of his wand, transported us into some
enchanted region, we could not have been more confused
and puzzled by the sights that met us. The people
were so yellow, smooth, and smirking, so shaven and
shorn, their little beads of eyes leered at us so cunningly,
and their pigtails hung so funnily from under their

128 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

wide-brimmed hats, that we had some ado to keep from
laughing in their faces. The babies had a look of pre-
ternatural age and wisdom, and the old men looked
like overgrown and wrinkled babies, in petticoats and
slippers. Instead of the bold, free stride and rude
manners ot the mountaineers, our new acquaintances
were soft-footed and insinuating. The corners of their
eyes were always wrinkling with a joyless grin ; and, to
tell the truth, they struck us as more amusing than
attractive. Most of them seemed miserably poor, but
we occasionally met with a high dame, dressed in richly-
flowered silk and glittering with precious stones, seated
in a sedan-chair, such as our great-great-grandmothers
used, and borne along at a swinging trot on the shoulders
of four almost naked coolies. We were privileged, once
or twice, to see these ladies dismount, and I do not think
that the humblest village lass at home would have
envied these poor creatures their silks and jewels, if they
had seen them hobble painfully for a few yards on the
mutilated stumps which were all that fashion had left
them for feet.

The ladies and the common people stared at us
strangers with undisguised curiosity, and often openly
burst into shouts of laughter at the comical figures we cut
in their eyes. They were good-natured enough, however,
and I daresay a British country crowd would not have
behaved better if a party of Celestials had suddenly

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 129

dropped among them from the clouds. But occasionally
we would meet with an official dignitary in his palan-
quin, or mounted on a mule, and attended by a score of
bearers and attendants ; and then we never failed to
have a glance of extreme ill-will and suspicion directed
at us, and we were stopped till we could explain what
we were and whither we were bound. Our leader's
tact and patience, and perhaps, also, our bold front, our
arms, and the presents we took care to bestow, brought
us safely out of what several times looked a serious
predicament. Accompanying the mandarin as a guard
would be a party of three or four soldiers, dressed in
flaming red, armed with bow and arrows, matchlocks,
long spears ending in three prongs, and other uncouth
weapons, and bearing a red flag, on which sprawled a
hideous dragon, all teeth, and claws, and wings, and
writhing tail. We noticed that at no great distance
from the official party we were almost certain to come
upon a group which we had no difficulty in recognizing,
by their white turbans and whiskered faces, as " Hui-
huis," or Mohammedans, who, notwithstanding the mas-
sacres, seemed still to abound in the country ; and it
certainly occurred to us that they were dogging the
steps of the " red flags." They drew aside on the narrow
path to let us pass, and glared at us in a way that
plainly showed dislike and suspicion ; but they did not
interfere with us, having, it seemed, more pressing

(690) 9

130 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

matters to attend to than a doubtful quarrel with
strangers.

The air, we soon found, was full of alarm, uneasiness,
and wild rumours ; and the family parties we had met
were country gentry fleeing to the walled towns for
refuge. Reports came to us that the "Hui-huis" had
again raised the flag of rebellion, and were flocking to
hear a prophet from afar, who had come to preach a
holy war. We were told that if we entered any of the
Chinese towns we would certainly be thrown into prison
on suspicion of being in complicity with the insurgents ;
while if we fell into the hands of the rebels, a still
worse fate would befall us.

Thus we kept away as far as we could from the
towns and villages, and tried to approach again the
banks of the Mekong, which we knew must be recrossed
if we were ever to find our way to Burmah and safety.
It was easier to travel unobserved through these country
parts than it must have been before fire and sword had
wasted the land For hours we would march through
ruined fields and gardens overgrown with weeds, and
the wrecks of cottage homes buried among thorns and
nettles, and from which no smoke had risen since the
blazing embers had been quenched with the blood of the
happy families who had once dwelt here. Now and
then we would come to a wooden shanty, recently built,
and a plot of ground reclaimed from the waste. Thriv-

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 181

ing crops of rice, grain, and potatoes grew around ; the
little garden was full of the beans, cabbages, cucumbers,
and other vegetables that the Chinese are so skilful in
growing ; and ducks, hens, geese, and pigs played round
the doors, and made as free with the interior of the
dwelling as if the owner had been an Irishman. On
seeing a mounted and armed party approach, the poor
people would come hastily forth and present us, in fear
and trembling, with their offerings of curdled cream,
cakes, vegetables, a fowl, or a piece of pork, along with
the kliata, or " scarf of felicity," — a little square of silk
or gauze which fashion requires should accompany every
gift in these countries. For dessert we were oflfered the
seeds of the sun-flower, and water-melon plants that
were growing round every cottage, which the Chinese
crack with great dexterity, but which we could make
nothing of ; also pears of great size and flavour, which
we knew better how to dispose of. Our hosts seemed
surprised when we insisted on paying for all we got.
They appeared to expect that the "foreign devils"
would proceed to butcher them in return for their
kindness.

The few passengers we now met on the way were equally
fearful and suspicious ; and a string of coolies, whom wo
suddenly met in turning a comer of the rocky road,
flung down their packs and fled in dismay at the sight
of us. Strange was the merchandise and strange the

132 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

coin in this strange land. For money we found
''bricks" of tea, bars of copper, and loaves of salt,
stamped and lettered, in circulation. The doctor showed
us among their wares packages of drugs manufactured
from bones and flies and lizards and what not, which he
said were enough to set on end the hair of every chemist
in Europe. He particularly pointed out a collection of
caterpillars, each possessing what seemed to be a long
projecting snout, which was in reality, he told us, a kind
of fungus ; and for this repulsive medicine the Chinese
were eager to give many times its weight in gold, be-
lieving it to be a sovereign remedy for every disease. We
were puzzled by finding whole bales of eggs about the
size of a pea, which our chief explained were the spawn
of the curious wax insect, which are every year conveyed
from Yunnan to the provinces farther north and placed
on trees, where, on reaching their larva stage, they deposit
a wax which is one of the most important articles of
commerce in the country.

One evening we had halted for the night at a road-
side inn ; not one of the " fine hostelries " which Marco
Polo describes as having found in this quarter in his
day, but a humble and very dingy and dirty place, where
the landlord had nothing better to set before us than a
mess of rice and a " ham," which, on examination, turned
out to be the leg of a dog, and was therefore removed
untouched. The doctor plied his pair of " chopsticks "

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 133

with great skill on his own portion of rice, and looked
on smilingly while we vainly strove to lift up a few
particles from the plate to the mouth.

" Confound these people and their ways of eating T*
growled Tom, eying the dish hungrily. "If I had a
spoon now — "

" I think I have had enough," said I, pushing away
my plate. I could not get the " dog-ham" out of my
head, and felt rather squeamish. " I think, sir, on the
whole, I would rather swallow Chinese medicine than
Chinese food."

" Don't you think that for folks that will by-andrby
be setting up for great travellers you are rather too
particular ? " said the doctor. " If we are to be long in
China, though I hope we won't — "

" Amen ! " said Tom and I in a breath.

" You will have to make your minds up to get over
many of the little prejudices you have brought from
Europe. What would you say, now, to fried rat, or a
stew of black cat flesh, which you will find at the best-
tables here ? "

" Ugh ! ugh !" we cried, while Hannibal got up and
walked about uneasily, with his eyes rolling in his head.

" A dish of black cats' eyes is considered a great
delicacy, but I fear that would be beyond our means."

"Ah ! please don't, Massa Doctah !" pleaded Hannibal,
in a lamentable voice.

134 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

" Birds'-nest soup, now," said Dr. Koland, paying no
heed to the appeal, " or tipsy shrimps — "

" What are they ?" interrupted Tom. " That sounds
rather jolly."

" Live shrimps, made tipsy with wine. When they
gambol and hop on the dish, you catch them in the air be-
tween the chopsticks, and convey them to your mouth."

" I am sure I should never get tipsy on tipsy shrimps,"
said Tom, shaking his head.

" I was about to say," proceeded the doctor, " that
these are luxuries only to be got on the sea-coast ; and
for a glimpse of the salt water, I daresay, we would be
glad to make a meal of these jolly shrimps."

" I believe I would even swallow a whole black cat
for that sight," said Tom. " But when are we to see it ;
what are our prospects now, sir ?"

The doctor's voice lost some of the cheerfulness it
always had when he was speaking to us, as he replied,
" You know what the landlord told me a little ago.
The Mekong is just beyond the nearest range of hills,
but beyond the river the country is in the possession of
the rebels and the banditti. They hold all the regular
roads, and a party of traders who attempted to steal
through has come to grief. I am afraid that it is
only too true, and that our retreat is cut off on both
sides — towards the coast, and towards Burmah."

" What must we do, then, sir ?" I asked.

AMONG THE PIGTAILS. 135

" Move on hopefully with the river as we are going,
and look out for some way of escape from this distracted
empire into the savage countries to the south. If we
could only hear of a guide ! I am sure there are routes
we could traverse if we but find some one to lead us."

" How can these people be so mad and wicked as to
begin fighting again, when the whole land is still full of
the misery and ruin of the last war !" I exclaimed.

" Ay, my boy, that is a more reasonable remark than
your objection to Chinese food," said the doctor rather
sadly ; "but I fear that it applies to more people than to
Chinese."

While we were speaking, we heard a hum and a shuffling
of feet without ; and the landlord opened the door and
looked in, with a gesture of apology. What he told the
doctor was to the effect that the only survivor of the
trading party, whose disaster at the hands of the rebels
we had heard of, had been brought to his house, and
was now lying downstairs in a dying state. The un-
lucky fellow, the landlord informed us, was not a
Chinaman, but a barbarian — a Burmese Shan. At this
news we pricked up our ears, for it was through the
Shan country, tributary to Burmah, that we hoped to
find a route, and the region was practically unexplored.
He had escaped almost by miracle from the knives of
the rebels, and, in spite of his wounds, had swum across
the river. He seemed now in the last gasp, but he had

136 AMONG THE PIGTAILS.

been brought hither in the expectation that the foreign
necromancer would heal him by his magic. On the
strength of some simple remedies which the doctor had
applied with success, his fame as a physician, or, what
means the same thing in China, a sorcerer, had spread
abroad, and already he had had brought to him patients
wanting a leg or an arm, for the purpose of having the
missing limbs restored.

We found the new patient lying in the courtyard,
surrounded by a gaping crowd, whom the doctor at once
sent about their business. The wounded man had
several ugly slashes about his body, none of them oi a
fatal character, but he was in the last stage of weak-
ness from loss of blood. The doctor carefully bound up
his wounds, and took the other measures in his power
to give him relief ; and he was soon rewarded by the
poor fellow opening his eyes and casting on him a
grateful look. He was under the middle size, but of
a firmly knit and wiry frame, apparently capable of
enduring great fatigue. His complexion was a coppery
brown, several degrees darker than the colour of the
Chinese ; his features were more regular and agreeable,
according to our taste, and their expression was more
open and manly. His name was Yung- wan. The doctor
determined that he would stand by him, not only from
motives of humanity, but also in the hope that he would
turn out to be the guide for whom he had sighed.

CHAPTER XI.

PERILS BY LAND.

UNG-WAN rallied rapidly under the doctor's
care, and in a few days he was able to sit
in the saddle. He showed so much attach-
ment to his kind benefactor as almost to arouse the
jealousy of Hannibal, whose chosen duty of anticipating
all our chief's wants he began to invade. When we
were again prepared for a start, therefore, and had ex-
plained to Yung the line we proposed to follow, and
asked him for his services as guide, we expected a
ready consent. A little to our surprise, the Shan hesi-
tated. Some idea we could not fathom seemed to strike
him, and he cast a suspicious glance at us, and even
made a step or two towards the door. Then another
impulse seized him, for he returned and heartily pro-
mised to accompany us, telling us that he knew the
routes well, and that they would lead us past his own
home.

For some days we travelled parallel with the river,

138 PERILS BY LAND.

with little of incident to mark our journey. The hills
of red sandstone were well clothed with oaks, chestnuts,
and other familiar trees, with here and there a stray plant
from the tropics. The wooden houses were painted
with strange devices of " squirming " dragons and gay-
coloured birds ; while within the threshold was a little
altar, where the family burned "joss-sticks" or squills
of aromatic paper to the memory of their ancestors.
The people were inquisitive, but not evil-disposed, and
seemed all made after one pattern, like their quaint
little gardens, and their fields divided like a chess-board.
Now and then we caught a glimpse of the distant smoke
of a town, or of the red tunics of a body of troops, but
to both we gave a wide berth. White watch-towers and
many-storied pagodas were perched on the heights, but
these also we came not near. Where we got a peep of
the river, it ran in a swift current between great walls
of rock that were often perpendicular, and many canoes
paddled by nearly naked figures plied upon it. At
night fires were lighted on board, and the fishermen
might be seen spearing the fish that crowded round the
boats attracted by the gleam.

As we travelled, Yung-wan described to us in detail
the terrible fate that befell his late companions. The
object of their journey he could not or would not
explain; but there could be no doubt — for our guide
had seen it with his own eyes — that they had been

PERILS BY LAND. 139

murdered in cold blood by the rebels, who had evidently
got notice of their movements, and had laid an ambus-
cade. The leader of the "white flags" Yung -wan
depicted, by a few graphic gestures, as a black-browed,
black-bearded personage, with piercing, restless eyes, and
wearing a huge white turban. We glanced at each
other, for the portrait recalled our old acquaintance
Khodja Akbar, who appeared fated to be the evil genius
of our journey.

Our guide at length decided that we were sufficiently
far from the seat of danger to risk crossing the Mekong,
which here, for once, had a broad surface and flowed in a
smooth deep current. It was tedious work guiding the
mules down the steep, slippery bank to the river margin,
and having them punted and rowed across one by one
in a small barge that served as a ferry-boat. On the
other shore, also, the hills rose steeply to a height of
several hundred feet, and the slope was covered with
great boulders and projecting masses of rock, overgrown
with thorns, brambles, creepers, and stunted forest trees
clinging to every ledge and cleft. Near the summit
was a level cleared space, which we marked out from
below as a suitable resting-place for the night, and
leading up to it from narrow landing-places on the
water-side we could trace two rough tracks through the
mass of jungle and rock.

The path starting from the platform which was the

140 PERILS BY LAND.

lower down the stream of the two, seemed to be the
more open ; but our boatman landed us at the bottom of
the other, explaining that it was the only one practicable
for saddle animals. If this were the case, we could
only wonder what the lower track could possibly be
like, for a more detestable bit of road we had never yet
met. We had to dismount and, leading our mules by
the bridles, climb and struggle through thickets full
of great barbed thorns and matted creepers, and over
polished and slippery boulders and ragged tree-roots,
now and then plunging into a mud-hole, or falling prone
and sending a cannonade of big stones bounding down
the slope, to the danger of the heads and limbs of our
companions behind. The sweat was pouring from my
brow, and my energies were all directed to keeping my
footing and helping my poor mule over a rock, when,
without any warning, I suddenly found myself pinioned
by a pair of strong arms, and saw the gleam of an im-
mense knife within a foot of my throat. There was a
brief struggle around me — a scuffling of feet, a clash of
weapons, and the discharge of a shot or two — while I
vainly strove to set myself free ; but before I could
well comprehend that we had fallen into an ambuscade,
the whole party had been overpowered, and were pri-
soners in the hands of an enemy who outnumbered us
by ten to one. Where our captors had sprung from I
could hardly imagine, for we had carefully surveyed the

PERILS BY LAND. 141

ground before beginning the ascent, and had seen no
trace of a human being. The ferrymen were plainly in
the plot ; and indeed we had reason to believe that there
had been spies watching our least movement since we had
entered Yunnan. The trap, however, did not catch all
the victims ; for in the midst of the confusion I got a
glimpse of the lithe form of Yung-wan slipping from
the grasp of his assailants, and creeping like a serpent
into the jungle.

We were hurried unceremoniously up the rest of the
ascent. Our rifles had been dragged from us, but the
doctor still held his in his hand, and looked so threat-
eningly that none of the bandits ventured to dispute
its possession. We took courage from his calm and
determined bearing ; and as resistance would have been
worse than useless, we submitted to the guidance of our
captors with the best grace we could muster.

When we reached the cleared space above, it was no
longer empty and bare as we had seen it from the river.
A group of perhaps twenty scowling cut-throats, armed
to the teeth, was collected round a white standard
stuck in the ground, and in front of them stood a black-
bearded man, with eyes that fairly flashed with hate
and triumph from under his dark brows and enormous
white turban. Our presentiment had come true. It was
Akbar himself! For some unknown reason — ^unless
it were the mere blind prejudice of race and creed —

142 PERILS BY LAND.

he bore a fierce grudge against us, and had become the
" rock ahead" of all our plans. He greeted us with a
mocking, contemptuous smile, but made no other sign of
recognition. His followers fingered their knives, and
looked at him as if eagerly awaiting a signal for mas-
sacre. The doctor glanced round coolly, as if taking a
survey of the whole situation, and then, still holding his
gun, took a step or two nearer to our arch foe. My
eyes had followed those of our chief, and looking below,
I observed, though no one else seemed to notice it, the
boat leaving the spot where we landed, and drifting, as
if by its own will, down-stream. The boatmen had
abandoned their post, and were hurrying up-hill to share
in the plunder ; and the idea flashed across my mind
that Yung-wan had something to do with the movement
of the craft.

My thoughts were recalled by the voice of the doctor
addressing Khodja Akbar in firm, temperate tones,
reminding him, as I understood from the gestures, of
the good offices we had paid to him, and asking for an
explanation of his violent and lawless treatment of us.
The only reply vouchsafed was a few muttered words,
and a sign to one of his followers to take the doctor's
gun away from him. Our leader turned upon the man
so fiercely, that the latter fell back a step or two ; and
then Khodja himself, with an ejaculation of rage, laid his
hand on the barrel. It was high time to act. The rebel

PERILS BY LAND. 143

soldiers and brigands — for there seemed a mixture of
both — had their swords drawn, and several had lighted
the fuses of their matchlocks. The insurgent chief had
not counted on one weapon which an Englishman always
carries about with him. The doctor, retaining his hold
of his rifle with his left hand, with his right " let out "
with all his strength in the face of the insolent miscreant,
who dropped to the ground as if he had been shot.

" Run for the boat 1 " he shouted to us. " Take the
right hand path ! "

I had expected this order, and tripping up the big
rascal who had first seized me and still retained his hold,
I started to run down-hill by the track that led to the
lower landing-place. Tom and Hannibal were not so
well prepared. They seemed to take the doctor's action
as the signal for a general onslaught, and wrestling them-
selves free, they "pitched into" the nearest of the enemy
in the most vigorous style. Perhaps, after all, this was
the happiest course that could have been taken; for
the Chinamen fell back, astonished at this lesson in fisti-
cufls, and before they had quite recovered, Dr. Roland
seized the victorious warriors by the collars, and by main
force wheeled them round and launched them in the
direction he wished them to go, following in hot haste
in their steps. Meanwhile, in beginning my flight, my
eye fastened on the doctor's precious note and sketch book,
every leaf of which I knew he valued at a " king's ran-

144 PERILS BY LAND.

som," lying in the grass, where it had been unheedingly
dropped. The impulse seized me to swerve aside and to
pick it up. Lucky it was I did so ; for at the instant I
stooped, a three-pronged spear hurtled over my head, and
my nearest pursuer, who had made a prize of my rifle,
stumbled over me and came crashing to the ground.
Seizings- the gun, I continued my flight, being now last
in the race. Down we went pell-mell, leaping over
rock and stump, and tearing " like mad " through briers
and lianas, with a yelling crew at our heels, and a shot
occasionally whizzing past us. Our late practice in hill-
climbing stood us in good stead, but how we ever
reached the bottom without broken necks or limbs, I
could never understand. In the boat, with a broad grin
on his face, stood Yung-wan the guide, to the unutter-
able astonishment of Tom and Hannibal. We spent no
time in explanations, but, leaping into the boat, pushed
well out into the current before our pursuers reached the
shore. We had lost baggage and baggage animals, and
part of our ordnance, but had saved sweet life and
liberty, and bore away no scratch from the battle beyond
what the thorns had inflicted.

CHAPTER XII.

PERILS BY WATER.

T first, however, our safety did not seem so well
assured. We were followed along the slopes
and brow of the hill by the whole "rebel
army," and shots, some of them, no doubt, from our
own captured guns, fell about us in the water. We
lay down flat in the boat, so as not to afford a target,
and thus escaped injury, though two of the bullets
actually struck the craft and caused ugly leaks. After
a little the firing ceased. The boat seemed to slide with
the stream with a new impetus, and a hoarse roaring
that we had heard for some time became louder. The
enemy on shore sent up a triumphant shout, and I raised
myself and looked around. We had drifted for more
than a mile from the scene of the late encounter, and the
river was swinging round a curve, and entering one of
those gorges with sheer walls of rock of which we had
already seen too much.

There was only an hour of daylight left as we shot

(690) XO

146 PERILS BY WATER.

into this dark portal. The current was already turbid
and strong, and deeply coloured with the red clay from
the hills. The tall cliffs threw their shadows on the
w^ater, which looked like a rolling torrent of blood. Way
of escape there was none, for the rocks on either side rose
so smoothly and perpendicularly that a squirrel could not
have climbed to the top. Ahead was a broad line of
wbHe, and the roar of the tumbling flood became so loud
that we had to shout in order to make our voices heard
by each other. For aught we knew, it might be a
cataract with a sheer plunge of a hundred feet to which
we were hastening helplessly ; but Yung- wan, who
seemed perfectly aware of what lay ahead, signified to
us that these were only " rapids," and we gathered more
confidence. We had pulled well into the centre of the
stream, and now saw before us a dark opening in the
line of foaming and tossing water ; and for this we
struggled literally for dear life. In a second or two, and
before we could properly collect our thoughts, we were
on the edge of it — an inclined plane of water, glassy with
exceeding swiftness, while on either side the angry
stream poured over a ledge of rocks seven or eight feet
in height. I remember the idea curiously occurring to
me, as we sped down the smooth slope with the swiftness
of an arrow, that it was like the bit of unbroken water
that one often sees between the snowy tops of a line
of breakers. Next moment I was holding on to the side

PERILS BY WATER. 147

of the boat with all my might, as it heaved and rocked
and spun round and shipped quantities of water in the
boiling pool below the rapids. With much ado, and
mainly by the skilful steering of Yung- wan, we managed
to sheer clear of the whirlpools and rocks. And then
" again we urged our wild career ; " for new rapids, and
reefs, and boiling caldrons, and contending cuiTents
followed, mile after mile, in uninterrupted succession.
The thunder of the falling water was constantly in our
ears, and we were wet through with the spray from the
rapids. The boat sometimes was quite unmanageable.
It polkaed and waltzed, and curvetted like a horse rebel-
ling against a tight bridle, in the eddies, in a way that
might have seemed comical from the shore, but to us
appeared in quite a different light. Then, as the current
caught it, it would bound forward, like a steed with
loose rein, until another eddying pool would bring it up.
At last there seemed some little prospect of
smoother water. For half a mile we had had no rapids,
only a swift current beaded with foam, that churned
against its banks, and was broken here and there by
ripples from a submerged rock. We were busy bailing
out the boat, which was half filled with water, when we
became aware that another danger lay in store for us.
The walls of the canon contracted, and the stream,
narrowed to half its former breadth, rushed like an
enormous mill-race down a steep, confined channel,

148 PERILS BY WATER.

interrupted by rocks and cross currents. A glance at
the prospect ahead told us that the boat in its present
condition would certainly capsize if we attempted to
shoot these formidable rapids on board of it. In almost
less time than it occupies to tell of it our measures were
taken, under the directions of the doctor and Yung- wan.
We stripped off our clothes, wrapping in them the guns,
our slender stock of ammunition, and the note-books, for
protection against the wet. Already we had fastened
short lengths of rope to the gunwale of the boat, in
anticipation of an upset. At the head of the rapids, as
the crazy craft began to tilt and rock in the surf, each,
keeping a firm grip on his little cable, slipped over the
side into the wild chafing torrent.

Away we went at "express speed," borne like chips on
the troubled stream, first down into a deep trough, as if
we were about to search the stream to its bed, and then
heaved up on a ridge of water, like a huge wave. The
boat kept a pretty even keel, for we acted on either side
of her like outriggers, and the velocity of our course
seemed to keep our heads well above surface. But once
or twice a sudden swerve of the craft sent me for a
second or two completely under water. As we rose out
of another hollow and crested the last watery ridge, I
caught a momentary glance of a seething mass of foam
below me, and beyond that a wide pool in which eddies
were circling and masses of water were welling up like

PERILS BY WATER. 149

great boils, as the river prepared to take a more gentle
flow through a more open country. It was the bottom
of the rapids and the end of the canon — safety and
deadly peril in conjunction. Instinctively my fingers
closed like a vice over the rope, and next instant the
light of day was shut out. There was a singing and
buzzing in my ears, as the waters closed over my head,
and my whole faculties seemed to be concentrated into
" holding on."

I could only have been a little time under water, yet it
seemed an age, during which I was in desperate conflict
for my life with the evil spirits of the Mekong, before I
again raised my head above the surface and looked
round. The boat, full almost to the gunwale with water,
was turning slowly round in the pool below the rapids.
The doctor and Hannibal were shouting my name and
that of Tom from the other side of the craft, and I was
able feebly to respond. The Shan guide, also, I saw
near me. But where was Tom, gallant, honest Tom ?
The rope by which I saw him clinging a few seconds
before was hanging limp beside me. Had the cruel flood
of the Mekong sucked him down ? and was that warm,
noble heart already growing cold in its unfathomed
abysses? A great lump rose in my throat, and the scene
swam round me till I felt as if I could lose my own hold
and sink after my dear companion. A shout from trusty
old Hannibal recalled me to my senses. He had struck

150 PERILS BY WATER.

out from the boat, and was making his way by vigorous
strokes towards the foot of the falls. Looking in that
direction, I thought a dark object showed itself for an
instant in an eddy, and again disappeared. Powerful
swimmer as he was, it was with great difficulty Hannibal
made headway through the surface currents and still
stronger undertow. At length he dived. Striving with
all our power to prevent the boat from drifting away
from the spot, we waited breathlessly, but for a long
time in vain. We were giving way to despair, when
the black woolly head of Hannibal emerged some distance
below us. He seemed to be supporting something, and
he gave a signal for help. Before we could reply, Yung-
wan had left us, and was making his way through the
water like a fish by short rapid strokes. I was barely
able to retain my hold ; but the doctor cleverly guided
the boat toward the group. Tom was unconscious, but,
we hoped, alive. The guide had relieved Hannibal of
the care of him, for the worthy negro was completely
exhausted by his exertions. Fortunately the stream
bore us of its own accord behind the shelter of a big
rock, and we managed to scramble on shore. Our first
care was given, of course, to Tom, and we had the
exquisite pleasure, after a few minutes, of seeing him
open his eyes, look round on us in a bewildered way,
and then, with a faint smile and a gleam of his old fun,
ask " which of us had fished him up."

PERILS BY WATER. 161

We had barely strength to secure our boat ; and then
we cast ourselves down on the rocks, supperless, and
without troubling ourselves to look for a softer resting-
place, humbly thankful that we had all come safe out of
such terrible peril. The sun was only setting, and on
referring to the doctor's watch we found that only
thirty-five minutes had elapsed since we entered the
gorge. In that time we calculated that we had run
seven or eight miles, and descended nearly a hundred
feet.

We questioned the doctor whether he had ever shot
so dangerous a passage in his canoeing experiences in the
Hudson Bay country. He was not sure but that he
had ; " but never," he added, pointing to our boat, " in
so clumsy a tub as that."

J

CHAPTER XIII.

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

HEN I awakened next morning I was in a
terribly battered and bruised state. I had
slept the sleep of exhaustion, and had not
felt the sharp comers of the stones digging into my
ribs and the " small of my back," or noticed the
attentions that the mosquitoes and other insects had
paid to my prostrate form, and now I smarted for these
hours of oblivion. I rubbed my eyes vigorously and
looked about me. It was some time before I could
realize where I was, and I had a confused notion, partly
arising from a loud booming in my ears, that I had
gone to the bottom of the falls and never come up.

One thing at least was clear, we were no longer in
China — at least in the China we had seen beyond the
rapids. There the country was open, settled, and cul-
tivated. The sights and sounds were sometimes so
familiar that one might fancy he was in the midst of
an English landscape. Everywhere there were signs of

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 163

long occupation, a busy and civilized people, and a
climate that knew the changes of summer and winter.
Now, all at once we were introduced into the heart of
an untrodden wilderness. The hills drew back from the
river, leaving between them and the margin room for a
jungle, marshy in some places and rocky in others, com-
posed of bamboos and other tropical plants, woven into
a dense mass by creepers and by high grass and under-
growth. Some tall trees, mostly palms, rose above the
thicket, and their long plumes showed like standards and
pennons above an army. More open forest began at
the foot of the hills, and stretched up to the summits of
the lower spurs. All was wild, luxuriant, tropical. For
aught we could see, the presence of man had never dis-
turbed this solitude, and certainly there was no path for
him on land, except by cutting a lane through the rank
vegetation. The only movement was that of the coppery-
coloured flood that rolled past, flecked with foam, and
the only sound was the dull roar of the cataract, that
seemed to rise and fall as we listened.

We were not long in discovering that there was
plenty of life about, though it was not visible at first
sight. Our earliest move was to the river brink for a
dip. Hannibal took a fine header from the bank, and
I was watching his dusky body as it moved through the
water, while preparing to follow him, when his face
appeared above the surface, his eyes almost starting

154 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

from his head with terror. He climbed with extra-
ordinary alacrity upon one of the rocks that strewed the
margin, just as a long snout emerged from the stream,
and a pair of ugly jaws, armed with formidable teeth,
snapped viciously within a yard of him. It was a
crocodile; and we soon found that the river swarmed
with these hideous reptiles, so that henceforth we were
more cautious in the times and places selected for
bathing.

" No life 1 " cried the doctor, echoing a remark I had
made a minute or two before. " Take care that there
is not a great deal too much life for your comfort. Just
look at Tom's face and neck. I am sure I could coimt
the marks of the stings and bites of at least a dozen
different kinds of insects, to say nothing of the leeches
that have been feasting on the parts of his nether limbs
that his tattered trousers don't cover. Shall I classify
them for you, Master Wilson ? There's a red pimple on
the bridge of your nose, now. Its size and colour show
that a soldier-ant must have been visiting you in your
dreams — "

" I should like to classify them and dissect them too,"
said Tom, looking round fiercely in search of his tor-
mentors. " The flies and ants and hornets and spiders
and the rest are bad enough, sir, but the leeches are the
most abominable wretches. Why, I have shifted my
place several times, and on each occasion a score of these

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 155

little demons have gone for me at once. Here they
are, you see," pointing to several small black creatures,
the thickness of a stalk of grass, that were making
towards him with a curious somersault movement,
" actually tumbling like clowns on the sawdust, in their
hsLste to suck me dry."

" They must smell the blood of an Englishman, like
Giant Blunderbore," I suggested, picking off an intruder
which was making its way into my own boot.

" Talking of Blunderbore," said Tom, " I am glad that
we have dropped out from among the Chinese, even
though we have fallen among leeches."

" I am not at all sure whether we will not drop into
China again as we advance," remarked the doctor " But
what has Blunderbore to do with China ? "

"I must confess, sir," replied Tom, with a look of
penitence, " that I felt like an ogre all the time we were
there. It was very wrong, I know, but I had an inclina-
tion to send my foot through their houses and kick
them all over the place. They were so small and
flimsy and toy-like, they seemed only set up, like ' Aunt
Sallies,' in order to be knocked down. Then the people,
with their queer, shiny, yellow skins ! I don't know
whether their faces looked more comical when they
were young and smooth, or when they were old and
creasy. And oh, their funny topsy-turvy ways of doing
things ; and those ridiculous pigtails !" and here Tom

156 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

fairly burst into a fit of laughing, in which, I am
ashamed to say, we joined him. "Several times the
idea struck me to seize a dozen of them by these pig-
tails, sling them over my shoulders, and carry them off
to my castle, like one of the giants in the story-books.
But it was the conceit of these people that took away
my breath," continued the young man, amusement giving
way to wrath. "Why, they looked at us as if it were we
who were the barbarians and the guys. Do you remem-
ber that old fright of a mandarin we met the day before
yesterday, sir, with the big glass button on his hat, and
nails like birds' claws ? He stared at you like an owl
through his great goggle spectacles, as if he were ever
so much wiser and more learned than you."

" So, perhaps, he was," said the doctor severely. "And
it would have been worth while having a peep through
these Chinese spectacles. It would take down the
conceit of all of us. Master Tom. No doubt you look
as absurd and frightful in their eyes as they do in
yours, and who knows whether they have not as much
reason ? Do you know what I overheard the mandarin's
daughter say, whom you seemed to think a good deal
less ridiculous than himself ?"

" I don't know," said Tom with some curiosity. " I
thought she looked my way."

" She said, ' How like a devil he looks ! ' "

" That was too bad of her," said Tom in an aggrieved

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 167

voice. "I don't know why she should have said
that."

" Because their notion of ugliness includes blue eyes
set under straight brows, a well-developed nose, and red
hair."

" But my hair is not red," argued Tom.

" But that whisker for which you are looking
out so anxiously promises to be of that hue. We
must not be censorious on other people's tastes and
manners. I have no doubt that every look and move-
ment of ours offended the old mandarin's sense of pro-
priety ; for he is one of the great literati, and has all
the wisdom of the Celestials at the end of those long
finger-nails of his. If he had understood English, he
would have had something to say to you, Tom, about
your use of slang," added the doctor, as a parting shot,
and to bring the colloquy to an end ; for our frugal
breakfast, mostly plucked from the trees growing about
us, was now over, and it was time to think of resuming
the voyage.

The Mekong had now spread out to a breadth of half
a mile, and was a magnificent river, with a strong, deep
current. We could hardly believe it was the same
stream that we had found contracted between precipices
and plunging over rocky ledges just above. We had
several times, it is true, to career down rough and
broken bits of water, which a day or two ago would

158 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

have seemed dangerous, but after our late experience we
thought this mere child's play. Our boat also was
better able to encounter these passages; for we had
given it as thorough an overhaul as we could, plugging
up the holes and calking the seams with the tough
fibres of the leaves of a species of palm, which Yung-
wan pointed out to us, and which Dr. Roland was of
opinion might form an important new substance for
rope manufacture.

Indeed this portion of our journey was that in which
we had most leisure and opportunity for studying the
natural history of the strange lands we were exploring.
Dropping down-stream with the current, which bore us
on swiftly, yet not so fast as to prevent our noting the
objects of interest on the bank, the doctor was continu-
ally on the outlook for new facts in botany and zoology,
to store up in his note-books, which gradually swelled
out almost to bursting. I need not say that we enthusi-
astically seconded him in his researches, so that the
boat voyage was full of enjoyment and instruction,
though it had also its discomforts. The insects that
had been so prompt in making their calls on our arrival
in this region never left us ; but we became inured to
their attacks, and we learned from the doctor to extract
comfort and information out of miseries. He discoursed
of the curious habits and wonderful intelligence of our
tormentors, — pointing out to us a huge spider, lurking at

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 159

the bottom of an ingeniously-constructed trap, closed by
a hinged door, that he held half open with his foot,
while he enticed his unwary prey within by a sweet
fluid with which his den was smeared ; or a long train
of ants, each bearing a fragment of leaf, and marching
in military order, under the direction of their generals,
colonels, and captains, who gave orders by a touch of
their antennae to those of lower ranks, while their
scouting parties were thrown out in front, in order to
give warning of danger. He showed us other varieties
of ants that lived by fighting and slave-hunting, com-
pelling their weaker brethren to quarry and build for
them, and even to notice the baby-ants and feed the
lazy old tyrants of parents ; and still other kinds that
actually kept " dairy cattle " — little green insects that
sucked the juices of the wood and leaves, and who were
regularly " milked " and watched by their masters. A
hundred things that would have escaped our attention, in
the water, among the grass, and on the trees, were pointed
out to us by our kind teacher and friend. Little bits of
bark, or lichen, or stick turned out, on being examined,
to be beetles, or bees, or locusts, or spiders ; and crumpled
and withered leaves, on being approached, spread gor-
geous wings of purple, scarlet, and blue, and sailed away
in the shape of butterflies, or disappeared out of view
with a spring that betrayed them to be crickets in dis-
guise. Often the doctor made us land, in order that he

160 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

might possess himself of some new or peculiar orchid or
fern, growing, perhaps, far out on some overhanging branch;
and no conservatory could have shown a more brilliant show
of blossom, fruit, and foliage than our boat sometimes did.
We had to be cautious, however, in our botanizing ;
for, not to speak of the thorns that stabbed like
poniards, and sharp-edged blades that cut like razors,
there were scorpions and other venomous creatures
lurking among the leaves, and it w^as difficult to dis-
tinguish a serpent coiled round the stem of a tree from
the twisting roots and branches of the vines and other
creepers. In the river we had plenty of opportunity for
studying the water-tortoises and snakes — some of the
latter beautifully-marked slimy things — that swam with
their heads at the surface with a slippery ease that made
the flesh creep. The crocodiles were only too familiar,
and we could not afford to waste powder and shot on
them ; and the lizards we did not mind, even when they
were as big as young alligators. It was curious, how-
ever, to watch the little " dragon-lizard," as it spread its
membraneous flippers like wings, and sprang nimbly from
branch to branch in chase of the insects on which it fed.
We saw plenty of noisy troops of parrots, macaws,
hornbills, pigeons, and other birds of gorgeous colour and
harsh voices ; and the monkeys were such constant
attendants upon us at our halts, and kept up so incessant
a chattering, that they soon became a nuisance.

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 161

As to the nobler forest animals, we did not see much
of them. The doctor shot two fine deer, but we only-
got a distant sight of a rhinoceros breaking his way
through the bamboos in a great hurry to get out of our
sight. A buffalo, with a magnificent pair of horns, who
was enjoying himself by rolling in a muddy pool, got wind
of us as we were stalking him, and we did not think it
worth while wasting one of our few remaining cartridges
in a long shot. A troop of wild elephants that we came
upon might have yielded something to our " bag," but it
happened that our larder was full at the time — the river
yielded us several varieties of capital fish — and we had
no desire to kill these splendid creatures for the mere love
of slaughter. On the other hand, we would gladly have
put a bullet through any tiger or leopard had they
come our way, but they prudently kept out of sight,
though I daresay the jungle contained many of these
« big cats."

We were not long in discovering that the country was
not, as we had at first supposed, uninhabited. At the
close of our second day on the river we sighted a little
thatched hut, some distance back from the river bank,
and set on high piles, apparently to preserve it during
the floods, while a small skiff was drawn up on shore.
Not knowing what reception we might have, we took
care to avoid notice, passing down the stream under
shelter of a wooded island, and camping on another

• (690) 11

162 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

rocky island for the night. Next day we came upon
more huts, some of them standing solitary on their
perches in the marsh, like long-legged herons, while
others were drawn together into little villages. The
natives were out upon the river in their boats fishing
with spear and angle ; and after much parleying we
came to an understanding, and ventured to pay them a
visit. The men were almost entirely naked, but their
chests and legs were tattooed in elaborate patterns, and
their manner of wearing their hair in a round tuft on
the crown of the head, the rest being shaven, was pro-
bably considered by them ornamental. The women
wore bright-coloured pieces of cloth, and were adorned
with a profusion of beads and silver anklets, bracelets,
and necklaces. We were soon good friends with
these simple wild people of the river, who were very
different from the ferocious savages who had hunted us
among the mountains. They were timid and slow-
minded, and looked at all the marvels we had with us, — •
our guns, for instance, — with a kind of stupid wonder,
contenting themselves with setting them all down as the
results of magic. Nothing took their fancy so much as
the large nails in the soles of the boots worn by the
doctor, and they got the notion that here lay the charm
by which we were able to do all the incomprehensible
things that we showed them.

One afternoon when our chief had lain down, after

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 168

a hard forenoon's work, for a siesta, on the bamboo
bench in one of the huts, while we rested under a huge
banyan tree close by, Hannibal startled us by jumping
up declaring, in a great fright, that he had seen " foah
niggahs " steal into the shanty. We thought he must
have been dreaming, but hurried with him to the en-
trance, and there sure enough was a group of natives
around the still sleeping doctor, pointing out to each
other, with awe and admiration, the rows of nails in the
stout shoes, while one stooped down and, with a scared
face, ventured to scrape one of the mysterious objects
with his nail. A shout from Hannibal caused him and
his companions to spring almost to the roof of the hut,
and their tufts of hair to stand almost erect with
dismay ; while the doctor sat up, and rubbing his eyes,
asked what it was all about. Hannibal was terribly
indignant at the liberty that had been taken with his
master's person ; but the latter only laughed.

Our naked hosts were not savages in the strict sense
of the word, for around their houses were some plots of
cultivated ground, and they reared large numbers of
poultry. After their lights, too, they were followers of
the faith of Buddha ; and near each village there was
a wretched shed, open on three sides to the winds of
heaven, with a patch of reed thatch hanging over it like
a ragged umbrella, and this we found was their apology
for a " pagoda." Further down the stream we reached

164 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

structures more worthy of the name, and the surround-
ings changed again as rapidly as in a transformation
scene. Again the landscape became of the " willow
pattern." Towers of stone and pagoda roofs glimmered
far up the heights among the woods ; the lower slopes
were laid out in terraces, where sugar, tobacco, cotton,
and the poppy plant were grown ; and the flat ground
beneath was occupied by " paddy fields," divided and
watered by innumerable canals and ditches. Little
bridges, carved with quaint figures of impossible ani-
mals, crossed these streams, and they were lined with
willows, poplars, and here and there a wide-spreading
banyan, from beneath which the painted walls of
cottages peeped, while poultry pecked and pigs grubbed
in the courtyard around. The rice-harvest was now
ripe, and the fields were full of busy, dapper little
figures, all shaven and pig-tailed, gathering in the
yellow grain, and heaping the straw into stacks like
our hayricks at home. It actually seemed as if the
doctor's prophecy had come true, and that we were
slipping back into China.

These busy harvesters, however, were not Chinese,
though they had borrowed most of their civilization
from the Flowery Land, and we were now where the
word of the imperial ruler of Pekin had little weight.
Some tame elephants that moved to and fro, carrying
large burdens, and groups of hump-backed cattle, re-

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 165

minded one of India rather than China. Strange-
looking pyramids of stone, ending in a spire, that re-
called pictures we had seen of Burmese and Siamese
buildings, rose near the villages. We were actually in
a district of the secluded Shan State of Kiang-mai,
which is claimed by the King of Burmah as part of his
dominions, though his title is disputed by the Emperor
of China, while the natives are generally able to
maintain their independence against both these poten-
tates.

This information we got from Yung-wan, who was
quite at home among his countrymen ; and I believe
that it was through his influence that we were able to
come and go unmolested, and received so much kindness.
We soon saw a hundred points of distinction between
them and the Chinese. They were gayer in manner
and more gaudy in taste ; and, apart from the differences
of feature and language, we could at once tell a China-
man among a group of marketing people by his plain
dark-blue or white raiment, contrasted with the gorgeous
hues of crimson, purple, and green w^orn by the Shan
ladies and gentlemen. As for the " phoonghees," or
priests, their flame-coloured robes almost blinded one
with their splendour. The Shans were more bold and
open in speech, and, we thought, walked with a freer and
more manly gait. They seemed also more truthful,
and more cleanly in their persons and houses, than the

166 SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES.

Celestials, which is not saying much ; and as hospitable
and good-natured, which is saying a great deal.

It may be that this favourable impression arose simply
from our efforts to understand and sympathize with the
people ; for the doctor had made us thoroughly ashamed
of our prejudices, and Tom admitted that he had not
felt in the least degree a return of his " ogrish " humour.

However that may be, we had certainly much reason
to be grateful for the kindness we received at a time
when we stood sorely in need of attention ; for each of
us had a touch of fever, as a result of our sojourn in
the marshes, and we were detained for over a week in
one of the largest of the Shan villages, which from its
size might almost have been called a town. We chafed
at the delay, to the great surprise of our entertainers,
who had no idea of the value of time, and, like other
Orientals, were never in a hurry. But the interval was
not ill spent, for we had an opportunity of studying
the curious collection of people of different races that
gathered every third day to market, and which embraced
not only many tribes of Shans, but Chinese traders in
copper, salt, and precious stones ; sleepy-eyed Laotians,
bringing fruits and spices from the regions further down
the river ; Burmese pedlers, with Manchester prints and
Birmingham hardware for sale; natives of Siam and
Anam, and savages in all stages of nakedness and every
pattern of tattoo.

SWAMPS, SHANS, AND SAVAGES. 167

From this point, Yung-wan informed us, there was a
route that would bring us to Mandalay, or to the British
possessions on the Lower Irrawady. We had engaged a
crew of canoemen to carry us up a tributary which here
falls into the Mekong. It was impossible, however, we
found, to start until we had taken part in the great
annual festival in celebration of the ingathering of the
rice-harvest. I will not venture to describe the barbaric
scene, — how the flags flaunted, and the gongs crashed,
and the trumpets blared ; how the adults feasted and
revelled, and the young people danced and scattered
flowers, and the phoonghees scattered incense and walked
in procession, followed by the heavy-footed elephants
bearing the emblems of the bounteous harvest. But I
will always have a picture in my mind of the broad,
magnificent river, as we saw it between the stems of
bamboos and the leaves of palms and other tropical
plants, illuminated by the torches of hundreds of boats
that passed backwards and forwards on its waters, while
the songs of the rowers reached our ears in a wild and
weird chorus. It was the last glimpse we had of the
mighty Mekong. Next morning we started westward,
before the mists had risen from its surface, on the last
stage of our weary wanderings, which would land us
again, we hoped, among our dear countrymen.

CHAPTER XIY.

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM.

T last there seemed some prospect of our being
able for a time to " take things easy." Our
rest at the Shan village had been very grate-
ful to us ; but somehow we had got so accustomed to
be moving onward, that even our short halt had seemed
a deplorable waste of time. Our thoughts were now
all bent on home, and the way before us was still long
and rough and beset by dangers. The canoe voyage
was a new experience, and in some respects one of the
most pleasant we had yet had. We had movement and
progress — for our two slim little crafts, propelled by the
dexterous strokes of the native boatmen, slipped through
the water like fish ; and at the same time we were re-
lieved of the distressing toil that had hitherto taken up
almost the whole of our energies. Our prows were point-
ing westward ; the doctor told us, after consulting the
pocket-compass which had so often been our "guide,
philosopher, and friend," during the journey, that a

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 169

straight line drawn in the course we were pursuing
would, as nearly as he could calculate, carry us to the
shores of " Merrie England" itself.

The thought inspired us with a wild wish to seize the
paddles and put on a " spurt " for the old country ; we
felt as if we could have flown over the hills and forests
and waste places that intervened between us and the
friends who were no doubt anxiously looking for news of
us, and probably had, by this time, given us up for lost.
But when we had made a practical trial of our proficiency
in paddling, we were not long in discovering that we would
best consult our own comfort and the rapid progress of
the voyage by leaving the work entirely in the hands of
the native canoemen. Dr. Roland could ply a paddle
almost as skilfully as the Canadian pioneers, in whose
birch-bark canoes he had ascended and descended many
a stream in the great North-West. Hannibal's powerful
arm was a splendid ally when " a long pull and a strong
pull" was required. But each had to admit that he
was beaten hollow by the under-sized, spindle-legged
canoemen whom we had engaged, and who seemed to
have no more flesh on their bones than would make a
respectable supper for one of the crocodiles that eyed us
greedily from the water. These men had been inured
to this work from infancy, and had passed their whole
lives on the rivers and creeks. Their paddles struck
the water with a finely-measured beat, while each sinew

170 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM.

of their muscular frames, which were almost free from
the encumbrance of clothes, stood out like whip-cord.

Away we skimmed like swallows up-stream, then,
making excellent " time," while a beaded line of foam
streamed away in our wake, and the " whish" of the
canoes, as they sped through the water, sounded like an
accompaniment to the musical but rather monotonous
chant sung by our boatmen. In the leading boat was
the doctor, and with him Yung-wan and myself — the
little Shan guide eagerly explaining and answering the
questions of our chief as to the nature of the country
ahead. Tom and Hannibal were in charge of the second
canoe. The weather continued delightful — perhaps too
warm in the mid-day hours for what would be con-
sidered pleasant picnicking at home ; but we had got well
seasoned now to extremes of warmth and cold, and the
sun could hardly blister our faces and hands to a darker
hue than they already bore. There were few indications
of that break-up of the harvest weather and approach
of winter which was one of our chief inducements in
hurrying out of this country ; and the rain and hail
storms, which were certain to overtake us if we waited
for another week or two on the eastern side of the great
range of hills for which we were bound, still held off.

We could therefore sit in our boats and enjoy the
grand panorama which passed before us on either bank of
the stream, and watch leisurely the strange aspects of

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 171

life in Further India which every new bend of the river
revealed to us. The tributary of the Mekong on which
we were voyaging would in Europe be considered an
important stream ; yet on our return home we found
that not one of the maps of this country which we con-
sulted so much as indicated its existence. The French
expedition under Commander Lagrde had left the main
river some distance below the point where this affluent
— which we found was called the Me-Hem — entered
it ; and Captain M'Leod and the other English travellers
who have penetrated a little way into this almost un-
known region had also followed quite a different line
from that we were now pursuing.

The current in these lower reaches was deep and
smooth, and pretty free from sand and mud banks,
though occasionally our rowers had to exercise all their
skill to avoid running on shoals. Many of the inhabi-
tants on its banks appeared to make their living by
fishing. Their tiny canoes were continually darting
across from bank to bank, or floating past us with the cur-
rent ; and judging from the quantities of queer-looking,
brilliantly-coloured fish which we saw lying at the bot-
tom of the boats, they appeared to meet with excellent
sport — as likewise did the vast flocks of cranes, pelicans,
ibises, and other birds, that congregated on the trees or
swam about us in search of prey. Though we had taken
care to supply ourselves with rice and other stores for

172 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STKEAM.

the journey, at the village below, we did not disdain to
vary our fare by occasionally making a meal of the
slimy-looking finny creatures which the hospitable fisher-
men ofiered to us ; or of a brace of wild ducks, when we
could secure that luxury without a waste of ammunition.
But I must confess that there was no tid-bit which we
relished so much as a broiled haunch of iguana, which a
venerable-looking native headman presented to us with
many salaams ; and our sensations when the doctor the
same evening pointed out to us, on a branch, one of the
great, ugly, warty lizards, whose rich, juicy flesh we had
found so appetizing, were decidedly " queer."

From all the signs we saw around us, a numerous
population occupied this portion of the valley ; and fish-
ing was by no means the only or even the chief em-
ployment of the population. The land for a considerable
distance back from the river-bank was cleared of forest,
and heavy crops, chiefly of rice, had just been reaped
from it. Native hamlets, pagodas, and sharp-pointed
pyramids, which are so puzzling a feature of the archi-
tecture of this country, peeped out from the midst of
fine groves of nut-bearing and other fruit trees. Here
and there were houses of larger dimensions, with gardens
and bath-houses opening out upon the river — doubtless the
seats of Burmese mandarins, Shan chieftains, or wealthy
Chinese merchants. Flocks of well-fed cattle were to
be seen, and now and then a domesticated elephant ; but

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 173

the work of the farm here, as in British India, seemed
to be chiefly performed by the buffalo. Large boats
passed us laden with rice, maize, buckwheat, and other
kinds of grain, or with piled-up cargoes of vegetables
and fruit for the markets on the Mekong. In some of
these vessels we saw Burmese pedlers seated by their
packages of cloth, crockery, and hardware goods, for
the most part, probably, of English manufacture, which
they were conveying down-stream, in order to be ex-
changed for the products of China and the Shan coun-
tries. I noticed with surprise among the wares of these
travelling merchants an article which seemed to be
guarded with peculiar care. It was none other than an
empty pale-ale bottle ; and I think that even the most
rigid of water-drinkers would have hailed with delight
the sight of an object so common — perhaps too common —
in the old country, had he come upon it in so out-of-
the-way a locality as the valley of the Mekong.

I questioned Dr. Roland about it.

" There is no accounting for tastes," he replied.
" I understand that empty beer bottles have been the
* rage' for some time among the nobility and gentry of
this part of the world. No great man's reception-room
is thought properly furnished unless a pint bottle is stuck
up on the place of honour. All the shrines of Buddha
round about here have secured at least one of these
familiar specimens of English glass-work. The chief of

174 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM.

the Shan principality through which we are travelling
has lately been made happy by being able to complete a
set of a dozen of these bottles, which are ranged in a
line behind his throne of state, under the great brazen
gongs and the elephants' tusks which he esteems, next to
Bass's labels, as among his most precious and wonderful
possessions. It seems that these bottles and labels are
believed here to represent the highest efforts of art as
practised among our benighted countrymen, and to be
executed with infinite labour and with the aid of
magic."

" What ridiculous people ! What a funny craze !"
I remarked.

"Did you ever hear of the 'china craze' at home?"
asked the doctor, with some sarcasm in his tone. " I
forgot, however — there is one heirloom belonging to
the prince which he values more even than his beer
bottles. He is said to be the possessor of a magnificent
gem. On the question whether it is a diamond, or a
ruby, or an amethyst, or a sapphire, authorities differ ;
but all agree that it is a jewel which has no peer in size
or in brilliancy in these parts. The place where it is con-
cealed is kept a profound secret. If the prince's suzerain,
the King of Burmah, got an inkling of its w^hereabouts,
it would not be long in changing hands, for that despot
lays claim to all the precious stones that are found in his
dominions. Rumour has it that he would barter even

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 175

his white elephant — which you know has an official
rank in the state only second to the king himself — for
the Prince of Kiang-tong's jewel."

"Do you think there is any truth in the story?"
asked I.

" That is more than I can say," rejoined Dr. Eoland.
" There is nothing impossible about it, and the country
we are about to enter has been famous in all ages for
its abundance in precious stones. I questioned Yung-
wan, from whom I had most of the information I have
given you, but he seemed disinclined to say much about
the big brilliant, or, indeed, to talk at all on the subject
of diamonds and diamond-mines. He peeped about him
restlessly all the time we were speaking, as if he were
afraid somebody might overhear us. I suspect that he
has got into trouble at one time or other about smug-
gling jewels, and is afraid that some one will recognize
him and rake up his old fault. They tell me that these
Burmese packmen often carry much more valuable wares
across the mountains than Manchester cottons, or even
empty Bass and porter bottles — tiny little packets con-
cealed about their persons containing gamboge, saffron,
cardamoms, sandal-wood, and other precious drugs, spices,
and dyes, or — who knows ? — some gem of great price
that has escaped the vigilant eyes of the Royal Proprietor
of the Mines of Rubies and Sapphires. But," pursued
the doctor, " as our dear old Scotch friend, Mr. Marshall,

176 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM.

would have said — I wonder what he is doing at this
moment, Bob ! — this talk of princes and precious
stones is ' neither here nor there/ We must put off our
visit to his Highness of Kiang-tong — whose capital, Yung-
wan tells me, is about a day's journey distant on our left
— until our next trip into Further India. "We have no
time to spare at present to look on the glories of his
gems or his row of bottles, or to listen to his grand
orchestra of drums, gongs, cymbals, wind and string in-
struments, and Chinese swivel-guns. As for our friends
the Burmese pack-merchants, I suppose you know what
makes their presence here most significant to us ?"

" Because," said I, " it shows that there is a track in
this direction leading to British territory,"

" Yes," my patron rejoined ; " and a well-beaten one ap-
parently. I regard the portion of our route we are now
entering on as a very important and interesting one.
The dividing chain between the Mekong and the Salwen
River has never been crossed by any European in the
latitude where we now are. It is a spur thrown off by
the Himalaya, and runs down almost continuously from
Thibet, where we crossed it a few weeks back, to Singa-
pore, on the Strait of Malacca. It is almost unexplored,
as I said ; but you can see that a considerable trade is
carried over its passes between the countries to the east
and those on its western side. An excellent opening for
British commerce might be found here. You remember

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 177

the strange-looking brown masses that you saw exposed
in the bazaar on the river, and which was sold in slices
to customers ?"

" I fancied it might be cheese, sir," said I. " But I
did not look at it closely, because it didn't appear nice."

" Cheese !" cried the doctor, highly amused. " Why,
man, that was tea — fermented tea. A budding planter
like you. Bob, should not have made a mistake like
that, more especially as the plant is of the Assam and
not the Chinese variety. It is grown on the drier hilly
parts here ; and the leaf is reduced to a half -fermented
state, and packed into ' bricks.' The Burmese and the
natives fry it in oil, and use it as a kind of dessert. It
is the great treat here next to iguana flesh. There are
cotton and tobacco plantations, and the silk- worm is cul-
tivated. The red clay that you saw is the famous stick-
lac out of which the Chinese, by a process that is kept
a strict secret, mould their marvellous lac- ware. It is
made of the ash of a kind of wood found in these forests.
But still more important, I think, are the signs of min-
eral wealth that are visible on every hand. You must
have noticed how plentiful copper ornaments and imple-
ments are ; the very shares of the ploughs are made of
copper. I have seen specimens of iron ore that are the
richest I ever examined. There are also said to be mines
of gold, silver, tin, antimony, and cinnabar, not to men-
tion the diamond-diggings."

(09C) 22

178 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STEEAM.

Though I half suspected that Dr. Roland was partly
poking fun at me, I own that this talk of hidden and
untold wealth had a strangely exciting effect on me. I
had visions of us all returning from our travels like
Aladdin or Sinbad, with our pockets bulging out with
precious stones.

" Couldn't we have a look about us for the diamond-
mines — as we are here ?" I asked in a tone that I fear
betrayed my foolish and eager thoughts.

" No, Bob," answered my kind friend, laying his hand
on my shoulder. "The 'Arabian Nights' are all at an
end. The Valley of Diamonds and the Enchanted Cave
are nowhere in this neighbourhood. My duty is to
bring you safe and sound through the dangers into
which, against my will, I have led you. As we cannot
now-a-days employ a roc, genii, or a fiery griffin to
take us up by the girdle and carry us over the tops of
the mountains, but must plod most of the way on our
legs, we have no time to spare for looking for diamonds,
when we are more likely to catch fever. There is
something far more valuable, however, which we may
find in the direct path of duty."

"What is that, sir?"

" What would you say if we were to discover the true
' trade route to China,' about which so much has been
written for generations past, and in quest of which so
many regularly organized expeditions have set out in

A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STREAM. 179

vain? I think," added the doctor, returning to his
half -bantering tone, " if we bring back news of two new
routes to the Flowery Kingdom, we will be entitled, not
only to the thanks of the Geographical Society, but to
those of the British Chambers of Commerce. But here
at last come our friends, in time to break off this long
harangue."

The conversation had taken place as we sat in our
canoe in a still reach of the river, just above a place
where it ran for a couple of hundred yards in a swift
and rather broken current, which we had had no little
ado in ascending. Yung- wan had gone to arrange for
our taking up our quarters in a pagoda which rose close
to the river-edge, and our crew had stretched themselves
on the bank to rest after their exertions, leaving the
doctor and me in charge of the boat. The second canoe,
which was deeper in the water than ours, had fallen
some distance behind ; but just as we were beginning to
get a little anxious for its appearance, we saw our com-
panions in the gathering evening light beginning to take
the current — it could hardly be called a rapid — with a
will. On they came handsomely, the canoemen plying
their paddles with all their might, and shouting their
accustomed chorus until silenced by lack of breath. For
some seconds the boat appeared to remain stationary,
the vigorous strokes of the paddlers barely enabling it
to hold its own against the violence of the stream. Then

180 A CANOE VOYAGE UP-STEEAM.

we heard Tom's voice endeavouring, in very bad time
and tune, I admit, to raise "Kule Britannia" for the
encouragement of his boatmates. The measure, however,
was too slow, and the effect was not what it doubtless
would have been had the crew been British tars. At
last Hannibal struck in with one of the maddest and
merriest of his " plantation dance " ditties, and the men
responded to it as if electrified. " Hand over hand " the
boat came up, breasting the current and sending the
spray flying from its bows, and soon it was securely
moored beside our own.

CHAPTER XY;

A HALT IN A PAGODA.

UNG-WAN now approached with the news
that he had arranged everything -amicably
with the monks ; and as it was now quite
cliilly at night, even in these tropical latitudes, we lost
no time in removing ourselves and our baggage to the pa-
goda. Ever since leaving the Mekong we had made some
Buddhist " Kyoung " or temple our halting-place for the
night, and in every case we had received kindly entertain-
ment. These religious houses, indeed, serve the purpose of
public inns in this country. The phoonghees, or priests,
we found very different personages from their brethren in
Thibet. Harsh fanaticism and savage zeal for the faith,
which, perhaps, were fostered by the bleak prospects and
biting arctic air of those lofty plateaux, did not well
accord with the soft genial clime into which we had
now descended. These phoonghees were lazy, easy-going
people, who allowed their vows to sit very loosely upon
them ; and if they were quite capable of cheating and

182 A HALT IN A PAGODA.

lying, they had clearly no mission for persecution like
the lamas. Their features and even their garb indicated
a milder temperament, and the very structure of the
temples — light and airy, fantastically painted and gabled,
and built of bamboos neatly joined together — presented
the greatest possible contrast to the blind, gloomy, prison-
like cells of stone in which the inmates of the lamis-
saries hide themselves. They were probably no better
than they should be, and many of them, no doubt, led
dissolute lives, but it could at least be said in their favour
that they did not neglect the golden virtue of hospitality.
The old chief phoonghee, who now met us and
escorted us to our sleeping -places for the night, was
particularly gracious and communicative. He told us —
what the aspect of the country during the last few hours'
sail had led us to anticipate — that beyond this point, and
until we reached the boundary of Burmah proper, we
must not expect to find any more Buddhist monasteries
with doors open to weary travellers. The cultivated
land along the banks of the stream had gradually grown
narrower, and patches of virgin forest now and then
had intervened between the rice plantations. Instead
of the marshes and alluvial plains lower down, hilly
ridges began to hem in the valley and to throw out
spurs to the banks of the stream. That evening's experi-
ence, too, had taught us that, in the most literal sense,
our course would no longer be one of " smooth sailing."

A HALT IN A PAGODA. 185

The worthy chief phoonghee was pleased to take
great interest in our journey — due perhaps to sundry
little presents which we made him, not to mention the
respectful manner which we invariably adopted towards
these spiritual guides and the symbols of their national
faith; and he concerned himself much about the lack
of intellectual nourishment such as his order afforded, to
which we would be condemned during our sojourn among
the " savages." It troubled us much more, however, to
learn that there was a prospect of our suffering from
bodily hunger during the remainder of the journey ;
also, that we need no longer expect to find any pro-
tection in the "passport" — cut in Burmese characters
on a slip of bamboo — which the doctor, by the expenditure
of some of the last of his Indian rupees, had secured
before setting out on the canoe voyage from the official
who represented the Court of Mandalay. The important
question of the means of transport was then discussed in
all its bearings, Yung- wan, of course, acting as inter-
preter between us and our host. It seems that it was
the practice for travellers bound westward to leave the
stream at this place and hire mules, ponies, or oxen for
the transmission of themselves and their baggage across
the passes, under the protection of a guard. The
circumstances at the present moment, however, were
peculiar. The fighting that was going on within the
Chinese frontier between the Imperialists and the

184 A HALT IN A PAGODA.

Mohammedan insurgents had unsettled the whole region.
Large numbers of the Chinese population had fled across
the border, which was within about a week's march from
where we now were, and had thronged into the Shan
villages to escape the impending massacres. Some of
these refugees had found shelter in the very monastery
. under whose roof we were sitting. Rumours had come
down within the last day or two that the Emperor's
troops had defeated and scattered the rebel host, who, it
was thought, would not unlikely also flee across the
frontier for refuge.

This was rather disquieting news for us ; we had no
wish to stumble again on Akbar Khan in our travels. As
the Chinese were again bundling up their effects and
making preparations to return to their homes, baggage
animals were scarcely to be had. The friendly old
phoonghee also warned us that, if we followed the ordin-
ary bridle-route leading to Mandalay and the Irrawady,
we would be likely to land ourselves in trouble as soon
as we reached the territory where the King of Burmah
bears absolute sway, as Englishmen were at present in
peculiarly bad odour with that monarch and his subjects.
His advice was, that if we were determined to push on,
we should continue to ascend the Me-Hem river as far
as we could, and then endeavour to cross the mountains
on foot, taking our chance of the " savages," who were,
after all, more to be trusted than a Burmese guard. But

A HALT IN A PAGODA. 186

he considered that we ought to settle ourselves _ com-
fortably where we were for a few months until more
peaceful times should return, and in the interval he
should have time to thoroughly discuss with the doctor
the question of the duration of the "sixty-four great
Cycles of Time," the vanity and misery of human life,
and the illustrious virtues of the great Buddha, on all of
which topics he hoped to convert his guest to his own
^ way of thinking.

Dr. Roland, of course, declined, with many expressions
of thankfulness, this courteous offer. Even if we had
had time to waste, I fear that the prospect of having to
listen to the worthy old phoonghee's long and misty
" explanations " of his religious views would have made
us flee the hospitable roof of the kyoung, or at least
have made us often take advantage of that excellent rule,
inscribed among the two hundred and twenty-seven
Precepts of the order, which directs the monk " not to
preach the law to one lying down, unless sick." It was
settled, however, that, as to the route we should pursue,
we should follow his advice, which was urgently supported
by Yung- wan, and still more effectually by the discovery
that pack-animals could not be got at present for love or
for money.

As we had again before us the prospect of " roughing
it" for weeks to come, we indulged ourselves next morning
with a few hours' extra rest; and the head of the kyoung

186 A HALT IN A PAGODA.

and his assistants conducted us over their establishment,
pointing out with especial pride the little images of
silver, brass, marble, or jade, often with gems set in the
place of eyes, the lamps, candlesticks, fans, and other
offerings presented by the devout to the pagoda, among
which we were amused at observing the inevitable empty
beer bottle, a greasy tobacco pouch that had probably
found its way to the shores of Further India in some
sailor's pocket, and other equally humble and vulgar
European articles. More interesting to us was the library,
where we found a goodly collection of the sacred writ-
ings, mostly written in the ancient Pali language, intro-
duced hither, with the religion, from Ceylon, and inscribed
on palm leaves, ivory tablets, or plates of copper, bound
together by cords. There were other manuscripts, from
which Dr. Roland was, by great favour, allowed to make
extracts and notes. By-and-by a troop of demure little
lads, with shaven heads, filed in for their daily lessons
— for these kyoungs are the public schools as well as the
places of entertainment in these countries — and we took
our departure. The yellow-robed monks accompanied
us to the river-bank, and warmly bade us farewell ; and
we parted from them with a much more kindly feeling
tovfards the Buddhist priesthood and faith than we had
acquired in the highlands of Thibet.

Affain afloat on the stream, we soon discovered that
its character and the appearance of the surrounding

A HALT IN A PAGODA. 187

country were rapidly changino:. From a slow-flowing,
navigable river, it was becoming a brawling mountain
torrent; and the banks, no longer level and cultivated,
were overhung by high cliffs and dense masses of forest.
Still reaches of water were found at intervals, but these
were becoming more rare. There was yet plenty of
water for our canoes, but our upward course became a
strenuous, unremitting struggle with the current. Often
we had to land, and with ropes drag our canoes by
main force up some piece of rushing, broken water which
the paddlers could not face ; and sometimes it was found
necessary to haul our light craft on shore, and carry
them bodily to the smoother water above the rapids.
This was not an easy task ; for where the bed of the
stream was uncovered, it was strewn with great masses
of rock, and where the forest approached close to the
water's edge, it was next to impossible to cut and trample
a way through the dense jungle and high grass. Now
and then we came upon a native hut or two, of very
humble construction, surrounded by a small clearing.
By their features and dress, or rather want of dress, we
recognized the owners of these shanties as the " savages"
of whom the phoonghees had given us so unfavourable
an account. But we found them mild, inoffensive people ;
and perhaps, as is the case elsewhere, they are regarded
as barbarians merely for the reason that they are of alien
race and customs. As Yung-wan did not understand

188 ' A HALT IN A PAGODA.

their dialect, we did not profit from their counsels so
much as we might have done ; but we gathered from
their gestures that there was danger about — whether
from man or from wild beasts we could not make out
— and that we should keep a strict watch against sur-
prise,

' The country grew more wild and broken, and also
more beautiful. The forest around us especially became
of grander proportions. Where high cliffs did not hem
us in, the tall trees rose like a wall on either hand,
shutting out the sky, except where the course of the
stream opened up before us a vista, which frequently
revealed glimpses of the lofty, saw-like peaks of the
mountain mass to which we were bound, and which now
seemed wonderfully close at hand. . Or I might compare
the towering trunks and overhanging foliage of these
noble trees to the columns and roof of a stately and
solemn cathedral aisle. Only here everything was of
Nature's workmanship, and she displayed a variety of
form and gorgeousness of colouring in her work which
man cannot hope to approach. The stems and branches
of the trees were draped with the most beautiful mosses
and ferns. Some were of tiny and delicate structure,
while we saw specimens of a kind of "staghorn" fern,
whose fronds were four or five feet in length. Magnifi-
cent orchids also attached themselves to the bark ; and it
is impossible to describe the richness and brilliancy of the

A HALT IN A PAGODA. 189

tints displayed by this the most splendid of all the
orders of flowering plants. High aloft, where the
sunlight glimmered on the tops of the monarchs of the
forest, many species of tropical birds fluttered about and
repeated their calls to each other, the grating harshness
of their notes being strangely in contrast with their
gorgeous feathers. Sometimes a little sun-bird or some
other bright-plumaged creature would dart down after
an insect into the gloom of the forest below, the metallic
gleam of its crest and throat shining like a spark in the
darkness. Troops of monkeys also gambolled about at
a safe elevation, and seemed to take immense interest
in our movements, leaping along from branch to branch
by our sides, and occasionally scurrying down the trunks
in order to take a nearer view of the intruders through
the leaves or between the rocks. The slightest gesture
on our part sent these scouts darting like lightning up
again among the higher branches, where they joined
their mates in angry screaming, chattering, and expostu-
lating, which, I daresay, if it could have been interpreted,
would have made us heartily ashamed of the impropriety
of our conduct. The heavy thud of a large nut on the
ground told us that, if we were to venture on shore, the
monkey objections to our presence would be hammered
into our stupid human skulls in a more impressive way.
Radiant butterflies, with the most elegantly formed
wings and lovely markings, fluttered over the stream, or

190 A HALT IN A PAGODA.

hovered from flower to flower on the banks. In the
evening, moths that rivalled their noonday-loving brethren
in beauty came forth ; and the burnished, scaly coats of
innumerable species of insects of the beetle tribe fairly
blazed in the shadow. Nowhere had we seen tropical
nature under such alluring aspects, and never had we
.had such opportunity of adding to our knowledge. But,
alas ! we could only gaze longingly and pass on. No
time could now be spared for botanizing or for insect-
collecting ; and we did not know what unseen dangers
mis^ht be lurkino: for us in the thicket. The labour of
forcing our way up-stream occupied almost our whole
energies ; and the touches of fever from which each of
us suffered also impaired our enjoyment of the scenery.
Our canoes " brought up " in a little pool in the
stream, where the deep reach of water was surrounded
by steep cliffs screened by masses of vegetation so dense
that only here and there the dark rock revealed itself
behind the curtain of green. Graceful trees, many of
them bearing fruit, others covered with blossom, grew in
the most inaccessible places, and their leaves and branches
were reflected in the calm surface of the pool. Climb-
ing-plants crept and wound themselves everywhere, and
wove the whole into one matted web of greenery. A
lovelier spot we had not yet reached in our travels ; and
we rested a little to enjoy the scene, and finding the
place suitable, decided to camp here for the night.

A HALT IN A PAGODA. 191

" Wouldn't they give us something if we could carry
oiF this scene bodily and set it down in Kew Gardens ? '*
remarked Tom admiringly. " Why, it would take the
scientific fellows weeks, I suppose, to classify the new
plants. And wouldn't stay-at-home folks stare ? They
have no notion of the splendid things that there are in the
world, and they won't believe us when we tell about them."

" And wouldn't we give something for a glimpse, even
for a second or two, of the sights that every day meet
the eyes of those 'stay-at-home' folks that you speak of
so scornfully ? " asked Dr. Roland. " I am sure that for
a sprig of hawthorn, for the scent of an English meadow
with daisies and buttercups, or for a sight of a breezy hill-
side covered with gorse and fragrant with heather and
thyme, you would gladly surrender all this gorgeous
blaze of green and gold, if not even your supper."

Hannibal, who was engaged in preparing our well-
earned meal, by dexterously cooking over the embers a
couple of jungle-fowl, looked up and shook his head.
But Tom and I clapped our hands approvingly ; and the
doctor proceeded, —

" These gaudy hussies of flowers that stare at us so
impudently are no more to be compared with the shy,
sweet wildings at home than the croaking, screaming
dandies of parrots overhead are to be likened to our own
larks or thrushes; ay, Tom, or your mandarin's daughter
to one of the girls of our tight little island."

192 A HALT IN A PAGODA.

" I have often wished myself," said Tom, " that we
might come across a good honest nettle or bramble.
Still, sir, you must allow that this is very grand and
beautiful."

" Very beautiful indeed," returned the doctor ; " though
to my mind freshness and sweetness and simplicity are
best. Come; we are not so badly off after all. Here
is Hannibal with our fowls done to a turn. I think we
will find these as palatable as if they were home-grown
poultry — which are supposed to be the descendants of
this wild breed — and to have quite a ' gamey' flavour in
addition."

Yung- wan, who had been absent for a couple of hours,
now approached, nimbly making his way towards us
through the undergrowth and over the rocks. He had
been out on the scouting duty in which he had
shown himself so skilled, and he reported that above
us, at a distance of little more than a quarter of a mile,
was a village inhabited by Shans and Danoos, a tribe
speaking a broken dialect of Burmese. After carefully
reconnoitring, he had ascertained that the inhabitants
were peaceable and well-disposed, and he had arranged
with the headman for our obtaining quarters for the
night.

Having finished our meal, we again proceeded up-
stream, and reached the village as night was closing in.
Just a week had elapsed since we had left the Mekong.

CHAPTER XVI.

A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST.

E slept soundly on the hard matting spread for
us in the guest-chamber of the headman's
house ; but next morning we were early-
astir. The first thing that was made plain to us, was
that we must now bid adieu for the time to our canoeing
experiences. For the last stage or two the river-
journey had seemed to us rather more toilsome and
troublesome than a march by land. Where we were not
straining against the current, we were carrying our boats
and baggage over stock and stone — "thorough bush,
thorough brier." And such bushes for denseness, and
briers for the length and sharpness of their thorns ! On
the whole, we were not disappointed to find that, beyond
this point, it would be impossible at this season of the
year to make any progress by water.

The village where we were now resting was one of
the halting-places of the traders, who on their land
journeying here struck the river and followed its banks

(690) 13

194 A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST.

for some distance on their way to the mountain passes
and to Burmah. We, of course, assumed that we
should pursue the same track, more especially as the
headman declared that the only known crossing-place of
the range lay in this direction. Yung-wan, however,
took our leader aside, and assured him that he knew of
a much safer and more suitable path, which could be
reached by ascending a small stream that fell into the
Me-Hem at this spot. Certainly the outlook in the
direction pointed out by the guide was not very inviting.
The banks of the little tributary, which was hardly larger
than a brook, were clothed with thick primeval forest,
which looked as if it had never been trodden by human
foot ; while a well-defined path led up the main valley,
and the wood there appeared to be much more thin and
penetrable. The doctor, however, had complete confi-
dence in our guide's faithfulness and skill. The stories
of refugee bandits and rebels from Chinese territory
having sought shelter in this wild district were repeated
to us in more definite form. They were supposed to be
lying in wait to pounce upon any party venturesome
enough to attempt to cross the pass, and for several
days no one had dared to make the journey. All things
considered, we thought it preferable to take our chance
of being lost in the forest and eaten up by wild beasts,
rather than run the risk of falling again into the hands
of Akbar Khan and his associates.

A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST. 195

The headman of the village expressed great astonish-
ment when he heard of our resolve. He assured us that
the jungle paths in the direction in which we proposed
to go all ended within a few miles of the spot where
we stood, and were only used by hunters. Nothing was
known of the forest-covered country beyond, except that
it extended to the foot of mountains that were, quite in-
accessible. In his view, the only alternatives were, re-
maining where we were, or returning by the road whence
we had come. Yung- wan, however, continued confident,
and the doctor obdurate to all the arguments of the
" local authority." "We shouldered our guns and knap-
sacks— ^very light they were, as beseemed people setting
out on such a journey ; but the doctor's note-book, which
I had rescued "under fire," was not forgotten — bade
farewell to our friends of the village, and to our boat
crew, who had proved such willing and trusty workers,
and plunged into the dark and lonesome forest.

It was some time before the silence and monotony of
our surroundings began to impress themselves upon us.
We were rather elated at being once more our own mas-
ters. Again we were thrown entirely on our own re-
sources, and our spirits rose as we thought that we were
dependent on our own legs and wills, and not upon the
whims of a tropical torrent, for the route we should pur-
sue. Not that we had much choice in the matter of a
road. Numerous paths, indeed, led through the bamboo

196 A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST.

jungle and grass immediately surrounding the village
fields ; but the tracks piercing the taller forest beyond
were hard to find and diflacult to follow. It is true that
we could not stray far either to the right hand or the
left ; generally we were 'hemmed in by walls of inter-
twined stems, branches, and leaves, sometimes composed
of saw and razor edged grasses and barbed thorns, so
thickly set that there hardly seemed room for a snake to
wind its way through. That serpents did manage to pay
visits to the pathway, we had frequently unpleasant re-
minders ; and we had to keep a sharp watch lest we
should place a foot on some slimy poisonous wretch that,
on hearing our approach, was slowly trailing himself into
cover, looking all the more wicked and ugly, we thought,
for the rainbow sheen on his scaly hide. A much
greater obstacle, however, was found in the fallen branches
and twisted roots that stretched across the path, and
over which we were continually stumbling, while a cold
shudder would run through one as the thought occurred
that at last a snake had been trodden upon. Spiders*
webs, as big, as Tom remarked, as " small cables " — or
at least, almost of the thickness of cotton thread — ex-
tended across the pathway, and were strong enough to
give a sharp blow when we incautiously ran our noses
against them in the obscurity. The proprietors of these
gigantic cobwebs we often noticed lurking among the
leaves by the wayside, and watching, like patient fisher-

A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST. 197

men, for what fortune might bring into their nets. Great,
bloated, wicked-looking ogres they looked, with bodies
as large as walnuts, and sprawling legs six inches in
length. We had little difficulty in believing the stories
that travellers have told about tiny sun-birds building
their nests in the abandoned webs of these monsters.

Our track seemed to have been more trodden by wild
beasts — elephants, rhinoceroses, and other bulky creatures
— than by man. It brought us by-and-by to the banks
of the little stream whose valley we were ascending ; and
after following it for some distance, it turned again into
the woods. The trees gradually became of larger dimen-
sions, and the undergrowth disappeared. We were in
the primeval forest, where the axe of the wood-cutter
had never sounded. We could breathe more freely, for
we were no longer hedged in by grass and jungle. The
trodden path grew more and more faintly marked, and
at length was lost. We could pursue our way in any
line we chose ; for, in spite of the air-roots and
climbing-plants that hung around each giant of the
forest, like the guys and ratlins about a ship's mast,
passage seemed to be indifferently open to us in every
direction. The mighty stems of different species of
palms and other trees, measuring sometimes thirty or
forty feet in girth, towered aloft to a height that strained
our eyes when we looked up. We felt mere insects in
size as we wound around and between these immense

198 A TRAMP TKROUGH THE FOREST.

trunks, or like a party of Liliputians who had wandered
into a forest of Brobdingnag. Twilight gloom and
solemn stillness reigned here, though a storm might be
raging without, or the sun of the tropics shining ver-
tically down on the thick mass of foliage overhead.
Here and there a gleam of sunshine found its way down
through the branches, like a ray from a bull's-eye lan-
tern, scattering bright flecks of light on the boles and
roots of the great trees, or on the sodden, leaf-strewn
ground over which we marched. At intervals a patch
of blue sky might be seen overhead. This was where
some hoary veteran of the forest had fallen in the ranks
from old age and decay at the roots, and lay prostrate
on the ground, or hung suspended by the innumerable
lianas and lialines that united it with the other trees,
which, one might fancy, were in the act of lowering
their old companion slowly into its grave. When we
reached one of these prostrate stems, we were glad to
make a halt for rest, and also to examine the rare and
lovely things with which it was generally covered. The
rough bark was a kind of "mosaic work" of lichens,
mosses, and ferns, and each high branch that had caught
the sun had been made the adopted home of delicate
flowering parasites that would have stocked a conser-
vatory. Beetles and other boring insects with shiny
coats of mail had perforated the rotten wood in all direc-
tions ; and in the midst of our most interesting inves-

A TKAMP THROUGH THE FOREST. 199

tigations, we were sometimes put to ignominious flight
by the colonies of ants that had taken possession of the
decaying trunk. Still more unpleasant were the atten-
tions which sundry black, wriggling scorpions seemed
anxious to bestow on us when we disturbed them in
their quarters under the bark or the leaves ; and once I
checked my hand just in time, as I was about to examine
a beautiful object, which turned out to be the green and
spotted body of a small poisonous snake. It was clear
that among the tree-tops, a hundred and fifty feet over-
head, there was a world of life, full of movement, light,
and colour ; and we were tempted to wish that we had
wings like the birds, or nimble limbs like the monkeys,
that we might spend our time up there instead of crawl-
ing through the dismal shades below.

On leaving these sunny spots, the gloom of the forest
seemed deeper than before, and the utter solitude and
sameness of the interminable vistas of trees confused and
depressed us. Yung-wan, however, was perfectly in his
element. He picked out the easiest way with unerring
instinct, and had apparently complete confidence in his
power to guide us through this labyrinth. A haunting
fear that we were being watched or tracked, however,
seemed to possess him. He glanced suspiciously around
him for signs of danger ; and often made us halt, in
order that he might make a detour back upon the way
we had come, and discover whether we were being fol-

200 A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST.

lowed. Yung- wan, since his adventure with the rebels,
had got " ambuscades on the brain." Nothing occurred
to justify these precautions ; and, for ourselves, we felt
certain that it was impossible that any enemy could have
been tracking us up without revealing ere this time some
sign of his presence.

Hitherto we had come across very few of the big game
of the region. Plenty of foot-tracks and other signs of
elephants, tigers, and rhinoceroses had been observed, but
we had only caught momentary glimpses of these large
animals in the flesh. This was perhaps lucky both for
them and for us. We had no wish to expend our small
remaining stock of ammunition in shooting them for
mere sport ; and so long as other sources of food supply
held out, we were well enough satisfied that the wild
beasts should give us a "wide berth." Now the guide
halted at a small rivulet with steep rocky banks, which
ran like a deep gash through the forest. There was a
crossing-place over the stream which bore marks of
having been often used by the heavy forest animals.
Yung- wan listened intently, and made a sign for us to
remain perfectly still. Was the mysterious " enemy "
about to make his long-expected spring on us ? We
hearkened attentively, but for some moments heard noth-
ing except the rushing of the brook. At last we thought
we heard a sound of snapping branches, and the noise
soon became quite distinct. Under Yung-wan's direction

A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST. 201

we concealed ourselves carefully behind a mass of rocks
and shrubs near the ford, and awaited the issue. The
sound of breaking twigs and heavy footfalls drew nearer ;
and now and then came a grunt or a trumpeting note
that alone would have told us that a troop of elephants
Was approaching. Soon the broad forehead of an enor-
mous " tusker " appeared. His trunk was carried high
in air, and he proceeded deliberately and carefully to re-
connoitre the position before advancing. The elephant
stretched out his long proboscis to right and left, and
blew great clouds of steam from it with a dissatisfied air.
Evidently he scented danger — perhaps, like our guide,
he was troubled in mind about ambuscades — but could
not make out where it lay. Had he known that four
guns were bearing upon him at a distance of not many
yards away, he would have been ev6n more ill at ease. A
breeze was blowing down the ravine, and we had taken care
to ensconce ourselves to leeward of the crossing-place, so
that he could not get the " wind" of us. After flapping
his ears doubtfully, and taking a nervous glance around
with his small eyes, he made up his mind that the fancied
danger was a delusion. His body emerged from out
the thicket, and as he leisurely picked his way down the
broken bank and across the stones formintr the bed of
the rivulet, wo had a capital view of him. A splendid
fellow he was, standing at least ten and a half feet high,
and bearing an enormous pair of tusks. Close behind

202 A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST.

him came two female elephants, and a young half -grown
male, and another female, with her " baby," brought up
the rear. It was only a small family party whose
passage we were privileged to see, and we looked on
with interest, but without seeking to disturb them. It
was curious to watch the attention bestowed on the baby
elephant by its mother, and the anxiety she showed that
it should keep pace with the elder members of the party.
It exhibited some reluctance to descend to the brook, so
she gently pushed it from behind with her trunk, and
then carefully guided its stumbling steps up the other
slope.

When the last of this interesting group had disap-
peared into the forest, and before the cracking of branches
that marked their progress had ceased to be heard, we
resumed our march. We began to discover that small
streams running through deep gullies at right angles to our
course formed a feature of this forest country. Between
these water-courses the ground heaved up in ridges,
which became steeper and higher as we advanced. The
wood here was not so dense and high as that which we
had passed through, and presently we reached a glade
on the summit of one of the ridges which gave us a
prospect of what lay ahead. The country around us had
the appearance of a tossing sea of forests, that rose in
higher and higher billows until it seemed to roll itself to
the foot of a lofty precipitous mountain wall, that ex-

A TRAMP THROUGH THE FOREST. 203

tended, as far as our eyes could see, right across our path,
and was now so close at hand that, with the sun beginning
to set behind it, its shadow already fell on us. We could
see, where the green ocean of verdure dashed itself against
these cliifs, that masses and lines of trees climbed high
up among the rocks, like the spray of a broken wave ;
but above, all looked " dark, substantial, black," in the
fast-descending twilight.

We were too tired to discuss the problem of how this
formidable obstacle was to be surmounted ; so we made
ourselves comfortable where we were, and in a few
minutes were sleeping the sleep of exhaustion and of a
good conscience. The morning, perhaps, would bring
more light and better counsel.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LOST CITY.

HE morning, however, did not bring us all the
comfort that we could have wished. The
first object that caught our waking eyes was
the great wall of mountains standing before us grim and
immovable. Its aspect was indeed changed from that
of the previous evening, for the sun was now shining
brightly on its scarred and wrinkled front. "Beaked
promontories " ran out from the main mass of rock, and
its sides were ploughed with deep ravines. Some of these
might possibly afford a passage by which the crags might
be scaled, but they did not look promising at a first view.
"I suppose this is the outer buttress of the Tanen-
Toung-gyee Mountains," said the doctor, after a quiet
survey. " I should like to know how Yung- wan pro-
poses to get us across."

The guide was engaged in his usual preliminary round
of inspection, and we could see him on an elevation some
little distance off carefully scanning the landmarks.

THE LOST CITY. 206

" I wonder that the Shans and Burmese should take
the trouble to invent so long and ugly a name," remarked
Tom, whose dissatisfied mood was probably explained by
his having had no breakfast. " I should not be surprised
at any enormity that the Chinese or the Thibetans would
commit in the matter of names ; but our friends down
below are easy-going, sensible people, and really ' Tanen-
Toung-gyee' is too absurd a title to give to their principal
range of mountains."

" I think we might get over the name, if we could
only get over the fact," answered the doctor quietly.
" I am afraid that is only the first step in the
ascent that we see opposite to us; and if there are
many like it, our muscles and our patience will be well
tried before we get to the top. But why this sudden
gush of tenderness towards the Shans and the Bur-
mese, Tom ? Is it because in your present famished
state you are fondly remembering the lean chicken and
the mess of rice which you helped to consume at the
headman's hospitable board yesterday morning ? An
active yoimg man of healthy appetite like you should
not be above breakfasting on fruit, when nothing better
is to be had ; and at this moment I have my eye on the
very choicest fruit that the tropics can produce."

" Where ? " cried Tom, jumping to his feet, while the
other members of the " expedition" also showed sudden
alacrity.

206 THE LOST CITY.

The doctor pointed to some tall trees, of a different
tint of green than those immediately surrounding them,
on the slope overhanging the stream below us. In a
few minutes, by scrambling and slipping down the steep
bank, and at the cost of sundry rents in our already
ragged clothes, we were standing under the shade of the
grove that had allured us from afar. The prevailing
tree had a stately, tapering stem rising to a height of
over a hundred feet, and surmounted by a shapely
dome of leaves. At that great height we could descry
dusky masses of fruit of most tempting appearance
glimmering among the branches. There was no need,
however, to climb so high to reach them, even if the feat
had been within our power, for the fruit was ripe, and
the ground was thickly strewn with bronze-coloured
globes larger than oranges. Dr. Roland picked up a
specimen and handed it to Tom ; but no sooner had that
young hero removed the tough, leathery rind, and carried
a portion of the creamy pulp under his nose, preparatory
to conveying it to his stomach, than an expression half-
puzzled, half -disgusted came over his features. He with-
drew the tempting-looking morsel from his lips, and
looked reproachfully at our leader, as if he suspected
that a practical joke was being played on him.

" Eat it up, man," said Dr. Roland. " Never mind the
smell — or the stink, if so you choose to consider it."

Tom, impelled by a keen appetite, again boldly ap-

THE LOST CITY. 207

proached the fruit to his lips ; and immediately on
tasting it, his expression changed to one of ineffable
enjoyment.

" What is it, sir ? " asked I, who, with Hannibal, now
became anxious to try the experiment in which Tom
Wilson was finding such absorbing satisfaction.

" It is the durian," our friend replied, " the undisputed
monarch of tropical fruits. I had no idea that it grew
in so high a latitude as this, though it is common enough
in the Malay Peninsula, to the south of us. But try it
for yourselves."

None of us seemed to receive exactly the same im-
pression of the taste of this regal fruit, but all agreed
that it was delicious and indescribable. As the rich
pulp, of the consistency and appearance of custard, melted
away in our mouths, we seemed to detect all the fruity
juices and flavours that had ever visited our palates
combined into delectable union. The strangest thing
about it, however, was the peculiar, half -fragrant, half-
putrid odour that assailed our nostrils. If the palate
was more than satisfied, the nose was more than dubious
about the merits of this luscious banquet.

" Well, lads, what do you think of your breakfast ?
Has pear or pine-apple or peach any chance with this
quintessence of sweets ? " asked the doctor.

" Certainly not," said Tom enthusiastically.

" Except in one respect," I ventured to add.

208 THE LOST CITY.

" Ah, yes ! to be sure there is that queer smell. A
traveller has compared it to the stench of a bad sewer
as felt through a perfumed pocket-handkerchief."

" I think there is more of the sewer than the perfume
about it."

" Perhaps there is," was the doctor's response. " Well,
Bob, there is nothing quite perfect in this world. Even
the durian has its weak point ; but after all it is an
exquisite fruit, and almost worth, as somebody has said,
the trouble of making a voyage to the East in order to
taste it. The rich dinner-givers in London would give
a handsome sum for that fine ruddy fellow you hold in
your hand ; but it will not endure being carried half so
far."

" What would the bench of Aldermen give to be sitting
under this tree ! " said Tom, waxing eloquent, as he pro-
ceeded to divest another durian of its stiff, burnished
skin. " The Lord Mayor himself, I believe, would leave
his chair and his calipash and calipee, and exchange his
robes of scarlet for my ragged jacket, if he could only
get into my shoes this instant. I appeal to this hon-
ourable assembly. I address you, sir, and my learned
friend Mr. Robert Brown, and the honourable and gallant
namesake of the illustrious Carthaginian general ; and I
ask if you can imagine a more tranquil spot, or a more
perfect picture of enjoyment."

The orator was interrupted by a rough and sudden

THE LOST CITY. 209

push administered by the doctor's hand, that sent him
and the durian rolling over and over for two or three
yards. A second after, a great round mass from the
branches overhead fell with a heavy thud, and made a
deep dint on the very spot where the self-satisfied youth
had been seated. Had he not been thrown so uncere-
moniously off his balance, he would certainly have been
stunned, perhaps seriously hurt, by the heavy fruit fall-
ing from so great a height on his head.

We lost no time in moving away from this attractive
but rather dangerous spot. Yung- wan was signalling to
us from the ridge above, and as he was eager to make a
start, we were, half an hour later, again trudging up-hill
and down-hill, through brake and forest, at the heels of
our little guide.

Some change was now made in the direction we were
pursuing. Instead of making straight for the high
mountains we had seen in front, Yung- wan " edged off"
a little towards the south. A long day's march lay be-
fore us, and we were soon tired enough of toiling up the
narrow valleys of mountain streams, varied only by stiff
climbs over hilly spurs covered with jungly forest and
down into the stony bed of another torrent. Each time we
caught a peep through the thicket of the range, it loomed
a little higher and nearer ; but considering how close at
hand it looked on the previous evening, it appeared des-
perately hard to reach. If they had not seemed so solidly

(690) 14

210 THE LOST CITY.

planted on their foundations, one might have fancied
that the mountains were fleeing as we pursued, and that
we were only making up on them after a long stern-chase.
We now entered a wider valley, between hills that
could be made out to be spurs thrown off directly by
the main range. Something else caught our attention,
but for some time we hesitated to credit our own eyes.
Could these chisellings on the rocks and these hewn
slabs, forming a kind of broken causeway underfoot,
actually be signs of the presence and handiwork of man
in the heart of what we had believed to be an unexplored
wilderness ? But the races that now inhabit this region
have neither the inclination nor the skill to construct the
works whose remains we saw scattered about us. Their
eflforts at house architecture are represented by flimsy
huts of bamboo, bound together by ratans, or at most
wooden temples for their idols, covered with grotesque
carvings. Their roads are mere trails through the
forest, for which, probably, they were originally indebted
to elephants and buffaloes. But the race who had con-
ceived and executed the vast labours with which this
lonely valley was strewn, must have been of the " sons of
Anak " — people with a purpose, belonging to an earlier
age and to a higher civilization than their degenerate
successors of to-day. The doctor had little doubt, from
an examination of the remains, that we had stumbled
on the ancient site of a settlement of that mysterious

THE LOST CITY. 211

people, the Khmers, whose ruined cities and temples,
buried in the depths of the forests of Cambodia and
Siam, are among the chief marvels of the East.

Excited by our discovery, we pushed rapidly on, in
spite of the guide's injunctions to be cautious. The
causeway which we followed, though crumbling away
and broken in many places, and with long grass
and shrubs growing in the interstices of the stones,
afforded a more smooth and easy road than any we
had trod for many a long day. The traces of ancient
occupation and decayed grandeur grew more numerous.
Everything bore the impress of extreme antiquity ; and
from all we saw, no one might have visited this forsaken
spot for a thousand years or more. The roassive slabs
of stone under foot were worn with the friction of water.
Masses of earth and crumbling bricks had slipped down
the sides of the valley and obstructed the path. Heavy
blocks of stones, which had evidently formed the founda-
tions on which the brick superstructure had been built,
still for the most part held their positions, though in
some places the site of the ruins was nearly obliterated
by dense masses of thorns and creeping-plants. These
works had, from their position and form, been built
for defensive purposes ; and when they were entire, and
manned by the energetic race that had constructed them,
no enemy could possibly have approached their strong-
hold. There were many places in the valley and on the

212 THE LOST CITY.

hills that confined it which were suited for cultivation,
and before scrub and forest were allowed to overgrow
the rich soil of this district, it must have supported a
teeming population.

Clambering over a pile of masonry, we came in full
view of an amphitheatre of cliffs, enclosing in their
embrace the ruins of the " Lost City." The tall, sombre
crags were beginning to cast long shadows, and beneath
them was a chaos of huge mounds and walls, shattered
and tottering towers, broken monuments, and colossal
statues that had been hurled from their pedestals, and
above which now waved mournfully the dark plumes
of a rank jungle vegetation. These thorns and evil
weeds were now the only traces of life in this once busy
scene, and they only deepened the feeling of utter
desolation which it produced on our minds. As we
advanced into the midst of the ruins, our amazement
and our sense of oppressive loneliness increased. We
passed through long and wide courtyards, paved with
brick and stone, and strewn with fragments of beautifully
carved columns and capitals, and bas-reliefs of gods and
warriors and dancing-girls. Leading from these were
flights of broad steps, now dismantled and broken, and
overgrown with weeds, and spacious avenues lined with
gigantic figures of man and beast. Here the head of a
sculptured elephant or the grinning face of a stone tiger
or dragon peered out from under the overhanging

THE LOST CITY. 213

branches, and a few paces further the form of a giant
lay prone among the rubbish, with his great club, broken
short off, lying beside him. What struck us much was
the contrast which the rude design and execution of
these misshaped monsters presented to the delicacy and
taste of the ornaments with which the buildings were
covered. Further on, confused piles of masonry, the
ruins of former palaces and temples, blocked our way.
Underneath, some of the doorways and chambers were
almost complete ; but nearly all the towers had fallen,
and the great blocks of granite and ironstone were tilted
and poised in every conceivable position. The giant
creepers that grew between the stones, and clung and
twisted with their long roots and branches over the
buildings in every direction, like the twining bodies of
boa-constrictors, had helped to complete the ruin. There
had been more, however, than the hand of man and of
time engaged in the work of destruction. It looked as
if some terrible earthquake had shaken down the sacred
fanes on the heads of the worshippers, and buried the
proud lords of this mysterious city under the ruins of
their palaces.

We sought shelter in a spacious chamber in what
appeared to be the principal temple, which had risen close
beneath the brow of the rock, and resolved to delay till
the morrow making a close examination of the ruins.
It was some time, however, before our excitement and

214 THE LOST CITY.

the strangeness of our surroundings would allow us to
sleep, and we talked long into the night, chiefly in
unprofitable conjectures as to what manner of people
they had been who had raised these wonderful struc-
tures, and what kind of life they could have led in
this secluded valley, before the mysterious calamity had
occurred that drove them forth from the shelter of their
Cyclopean walls. The beasts of the night also seemed
to have all awakened and to be calling to each other
with weird bowlings and shrieks, and great bats flitted
about our room with an eerie sound. One could have
imagined that the spirits of the ancient inhabitants had
been aroused out of their long sleep, and were questioning
one another as to the strange visitors from the world of
the living who had invaded their city of the dead.

We were early afoot in the morning, however, and
made considerable progress in taking measurements of
the ruins. We found them even more extensive and
elaborate than we had supposed on the previous evening.
The temple especially in which we had passed the night
had been a stupendous and beautiful structure. We
ascended the remains of an outer staircase of stone, and
thus getting on the top of the ruined edifice, made our
way with difiiculty and danger, sometimes along the
crumbling edges of walls, and through vast dilapidated
halls, till we found ourselves close to the rock which
formed part of the precipice that girded in the valley.

THE LOST CITY. 216

The other members of the party were a little in front
of Hannibal, who lingered behind to peep into some
dark corridors that attracted his notice. A shout of
alarm from the negro brought the rest of us to his side.
His eyes were rolling nervously in their sockets, and as
soon as he could get breath he whispered, in terrified
accents, that he had seen the form of a man disappear
down a gloomy passage which seemed to lead away into
the interior of the building.

This was disturbing news, and Yung-wan's yellow
face, I thought, turned to a wan ash colour with alarm.
We questioned Hannibal closely as to what he had really
seen, as he seemed to be a little confused, and we knew
that, though brave as a lion in other respects, he was
not above the influence of superstitious fear.

"Sawum plain, Massa Doctah,"he protested earnestly,
" saw um clear as mud."

" Why didn't you catch hold of him ? "

" Hi ! flopped out o' sight, right b'hind dat dar wobbling
t'ing," answered Hannibal, still in a state of great excite-
ment, and pointing to a hideous stone griflfin which
guarded the low entrance of the passage. " Couldn't
have ketched hold o' a ghost anyhow ! " he added re-
proachfully.

" What was he like ? Was he in the native dress ? "

" No ; not like de niggah fellahs round yere — 'spect-
ably dressed man like myself." As honest Hannibal's

216 THE LOST CITY.

cotton jacket was now a thing of shreds and patches,
and his knees and brawny calves revealed themselves
freely through his trousers, his notions of being " respect-
ably dressed" were not extravagant.

" Have you ever seen anybody like him before ? "

" No, Massa Doctah," returned the negro, slowly pon-
dering, as if he were recalling one by one the features of
the mysterious stranger, and trying to find resemblances.
" Nebber seen anybody a bit like him."

"Would you know the face if you were to meet it
again ? "

"No," said Hannibal gravely, scratching his wool;
then brightening up a little, " I wouldn't know de face ;
but I would know de hack, if I met it"

" Then you saw only his back ? "

" Only de back, sar," was the reply received by the
astonished doctor, while we could not help bursting into
a laugh at this result of the cross-questioning

Meantime a light had been kindled, and we stooped
and entered the dark portal, under the outstretched
wings and yawning jaws of the grifiin. It was not a
corridor after all ; only a recess in the wall, which con-
tained nothing except a few large vampire bats, which
came flapping against our light with a suddenness that
made our hearts jump to our mouths. At the farther
end, however, was a wide crack, where the walls had
been rent apart, and it was just possible that a man

THE LOST CITY. 217

might have squeezed himself through this opening. We
tried the aperture by turns, and it was found that only
Yung-wan's supple form could by any possibility get
through. If any one evilly disposed towards us were
in hiding on the other side, the guide would have been
completely at his mercy had he attempted alone to ex-
plore the dark chamber with which the " crack in the
wall " seemed to communicate, and we would have been
luiable to render him any aid.

It was thought best, therefore, not to prosecute the
search further ; and it seemed so improbable that another
human being could be in this hidden spot besides ourselves,
and so hard to believe that anybody could escape by the
narrow cranny in the wall, that we almost succeeded in
persuading one another, and even Hannibal, that he
must have mistaken the flutter of a bat's wings for the
vanishing form of a man. The incident had, however,
made us all uneasy ; and we became more eager to leave
the " lost city " behind us than we had a little ago been
to explore all its secret recesses.

Rising above the other ruins were the remains of what
had once been a lofty tower of singular proportions.
A great part of it was still standing, shattered and
crumbling, but strong even in its decay ; the grotesque
carvings with which the outer walls were covered for
the most part still retained their positions. It was Dr.
Roland's opinion that this was probably the greatest of

218 THE LOST CITY.

the " high places " in which the idolaters who built the
pile had worshipped, as it was their custom to have the
" holy of holies " in their temples as near as possible to the
light of day and the influence of the stars. To this part
of the ruins the guide led us, and proceeded to wind his
way upwards through dusty galleries and narrow stair-
cases, where the only light sometimes was what trickled
in by apertures in the walls and roof, and where we occa-
sionally had to crawl on hands and knees to surmount
the heaps of rubbish. Rather unexpectedly, we emerged
into the daylight on a platform on the side of the moun-
tain. Near us was a low doorway in the cliff, aiid into this
Yung- wan dived without hesitation. Of course we had
to follow. Stooping low, in case we should strike our
heads against the projections on the roof, we slowly
groped our way upwards through the rock-hewn passage
for what appeared a terribly long space of time. Then
again we greeted the light of the sun, on a second plat-
form much higher up the cliff than the first. Here we
found steps cut in the rock, which ascended in zigzags
towards the summit of the mountain. A heavy block of
stone lay close to the dark portal from which we had
emerged. Yung- wan made a narrow examination of the
ground, and appeared reassured by what he saw ; and, at
his request, we assisted in rolling the boulder against the
mouth of the archway.

Pausing now for a little, to fetch breath, we began the

The Lost city. 219

ascent of the mountain. Though the steps were deeply
cut, and our hold made secure by iron pins which had
been driven into the rock at the more dangerous places,
this part of our task was no easy one. As the least
robust of the party, I had several times to rest a few
minutes to get my " wind," and to take another look
down upon the marvellous and mysterious scene we were
leaving.

" Come away, Massa Bob," said trusty Hannibal, reach-
ing out a hand to help me along. " Jest think you're
gwine upstairs to dinnah."

" It must be dinner in a light-house then, or at the top
of a factory stalk," put in Tom.

" Say we are climbing the steps of the temple of Fame
at once," cried Dr. Roland, who was, with the guide,
some paces ahead. " Forward, lads I here is the top of
the mountain in sight at last."

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE.

AN you make out yet whereabout we are,
and whither we are going ? " asked Tom.
" No, Tom," replied Dr. Roland, knitting
his brows, on which for several days an expression of
anxiety had sat, which did not escape our notice. " No,
I can't make it out — exactly," he repeated, as he put
away his pocket-compass, which he had been consulting
as he narrowly scanned the hills and valleys around and
below us.

Nine days had elapsed since we had left the Mekong —
six spent in canoeing on the tributary stream, and three
in marching on foot through the jungle and forest ; but
judging by our worn frames and tattered clothes, it
might have been supposed that we had been as many
months on the tramp. We were literally in rags ; and
this was a serious matter, when the chill, broken weather
was setting in, and when we had again ascended into
cold, high mountainous regions. The journey had been

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 221

toilsome and monotonous, — on the river, constantly
struggling against the current, or hauling our canoes by-
main force up the rapids, and since our water voyage
ended, a no less desperate tussle through the dark, dense,
tangled thickets, and by a track that seemed to lead us
continually up-hill.

" As far as I can make out," proceeded the doctor,
after a pause, " our guide has left the valleys that might
be expected to bring us to the passes leading to the
Salwen river, and is carrying us directly to the steepest
parts of the dividing range, with what object I cannot
imagine."

" Do you not think, sir," I asked, " that there has
been something mysterious about Yung-wan's behaviour
from the very beginning ? You remember how reluc-
tant he was to join us, and how eager he has been since
to bring us into this quarter ? "

"I would answer for his good faith with my life,"
said Tom hastily. " And well I might, for I owe mine
to him and to Hannibal."

" I would too, sar," struck in the negro. " Dere is no
harm in dat coloured man, Massa Doctah and Massa Bob.
He quite right all frew."

"I do not doubt it," the doctor rejoined; "neither, I
am sure, does Bob. What I have noticed is that he has
some scheme in his head that he has not yet divulged to
us. He seems in constant fear of beinoj watched and

222 -rfiE GREAT SAtPHlRE.

surprised, though the hill-folks hereabout have been
quite friendly. You observed in what a hurry he was
to dismiss our canoemen, and the precautions he took,
by doubling and returning on his path, to discover if
they were following us. To-day he has been more
excited and suspicious than ever, especially since we
heard the rumour in the village where we made our
mid-day halt that the rebel army in Yunnan had been
scattered, and that some of the refugees were supposed
to have fled for shelter to these mountains. And now,
after his hard day's march, he has climbed up to the
brow of the hill above to reconnoitre the position, and
see if there are no spies about."

"Have you not asked him, then, sir, what he has in
his head?"

" I have, but got no satisfactory reply. He insists
that this is the only route. The fact is," proceeded the
doctor, after a few moments' thought, " I have not been
anxious to turn away from the line we are now following.
I believe we are on the eve of the greatest discovery
our journey has yet yielded. Look at these heights."

"We turned towards the quarter indicated by our
leader — the only direction in which we could see beyond
the limits of the little glade where the guide had left us.
We were now high above the level of the plains, and
had left behind us the tropical jungle, but coppices of
oak, birch, and bracken, growing amid rocks stained

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 228

white with lichens, shut out the landscape on three sides
of us. On the remaining side there opened up a pros-
pect of dark valleys and of wooded hills rising to meet
a lofty range of mountains, whose peaks, standing out
grandly to the south-westward, reared themselves in
columnar masses, grouped together like the tubes of some
stupendous organ, or showed like vast lines of broken
wall capped by fragments of towers and overlooked by
domes and truncated cones, tilted this way and that, as
if the whole were in the act of tumbling into ruin. So
strange and wild was their appearance, that we had diffi-
culty in persuading ourselves that we were not looking
upon a fantastically-shaped cloud that had formed itself
in the evening sky. A cold wind blew from these un-
scalable heights, which were flecked with snow, and we
had already had a warning of the harsh climate of the
mountains in a shower of sleet. The doctor explained
to us that these rocks bore on their slopes the traces of
what he called " igneous action." They had been thrown
up, perhaps from the bottom of the ocean, when the
earth was heaving and bubbling with intense heat, and
it was possible that the fires that had formed them were
not yet extinct. We had seen many signs of recent
volcanic action, having crossed several brooks of warm
or tepid water close by ice-cold streams, and having this
very evening found a sulphur spring, so hot that we
could not bear to keep our hands in it.

224 THE GREAT SAPPHIRE.

" I should not wonder," said Dr. Roland in conclusion,
" if we came upon a real, live, smoking volcano. It has
often been conjectured that an active volcanic region
would be found hereabout. It will be a feather in our
caps if it has been reserved for us to discover it."

He was interrupted by Yung-wan, who appeared
scrambling down the face of the rocks with the activity
of a cat. The results of his survey had evidently pleased
him ; for, along with the suppressed excitement in his
face, there was an air of triumph in the way he signalled
to us to begin the ascent at once, as soon as he was
fairly in view. He had satisfied himself apparently that
there were no spies about ; for instead of creeping
cautiously up under cover, as on his first ascent, his only
anxiety was now to get rapidly to the top. We followed
him, wondering what was about to happen next, and
hardly able to keep the guide in sight, so steep and
rugged was the way. After half an hour's tough work
we crested the ridge, and could see not only what lay
beyond, but the whole country around us. As the doctor
had already guessed, we were on the summit of one of
the highest of the spurs thrown off from the dividing
range between the Mekong and Salwen rivers. Looking
behind us, we saw the ridge on which we were standing
and a number of parallel ridges stretching away east-
ward, with steep valleys between, towards low, hot lands
by the river. In front and on both sides of us was the

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 225

majestic central chain, of which we had now a fuller
view; and almost at our feet was a deep, desolate gorge
that appeared effectually to bar our way. Beyond this
gorge, and far away among other peaks, at a distance
of probably thirty miles, was an object that instantly
riveted our notice — a cone with a light blue vapour
rising from its summit — a veritable volcano !

Yung-wan looked on impatiently, while the doctor
noted as carefully as possible the position of the smoking
crater, and we spoke excitedly about our discovery. He
even muttered a word or two to the effect that the "fire
nat " would be angry at his home being looked at, and
might do us an injury. He wished to call our attention
to something much nearer at hand — the mountain, in
fact, of which the ridge we were standing upon formed a
part. It was a huge mass of naked brown rock, rising
some three thousand feet above us, and therefore pro-
bably nine thousand feet above sea-level. Its base must
have been many miles in circuit, and its summit had
that appearance of a long ruined wall that we observed
in other giants of the range. It looked, in fact, as if
the top had been blown off by some terrific explosion,
which had strewn the fragments of the mountain over
all the neighbouring slopes.

" And I have no doubt that is exactly what has hap-
pened," said the doctor, to whom I ventured to impart
this notion. " Some time or other there must have been

(690) 15

226 THE GREAT SAPPHIRE.

a fearful outburst of smoke and flame up there, and the
air would be filled with fiery ashes and sulphurous
fumes."

" It must have been warm times up here then," said
Tom. "It would have been worth while seeing the
flames belching up hundreds of feet into the air, and
red-hot rocks raining down into the gorge there."

" Hardly worth the risk, Tom," said the doctor. " We
will find it quite quiet now, I fancy — only an extinct
crater, with perhaps some water at the bottom. I can-
not imagine what in the world Yung- wan wishes with us
up there, but I am glad we are to have the chance of
seeing down the vent. — Time to turn in, boys," he added,
looking at the clouds and at his watch.

Of course it would have been out of the question to
have begun the ascent that evening, so we kindled a fire
and made ourselves as snug as we could for the night
under the shelter of some gnarled and stunted trees.
To tell the truth, our quarters were not very comfortable.
Rain and sleet began by-and-by to fall, and the wind
rose, and moaned and howled and sobbed among the crags
and hollows of the mountain. We were barely able to
keep the fire of green wood alive in the wind and wet,
and it gave out much more smoke than heat. The cold,
raw air pierced to our bones ; and as we sat shivering on
the sodden ground and huddling together for warmth,
we cordially agreed that we would gladly exchange our

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 227

present chilly camping-place for one in the swamps be-
low, even with the mosquitoes for company. Our only
consolation was, that away on one spot of the murky
horizon we saw a yellowish glare, which must come from
the volcano — "our volcano," as we already began to
call it.

Daylight at length broke, and we rose and stretched
our cramped limbs, to which our thin damp clothes still
clung. Breakfast did not occupy us long, for Hannibal
had nothing better to offer than the cold remnants of a
bustard, knocked over on our yesterday's march and partly
devoured at last night's supper. The mountain did not
look any more inviting in the gray morning light ; and
I never felt less inclined or able to devote myself to the
cause of science than on this occasion. Hannibal glanced
nervously at the smoking cone in the distance, above which
a dark cloudy shape now hovered, like one of the " gins "
of the Arabian Niofhts. Thouofh as bold as a lion when
man or beast was in question, he was not above super-
stitious fears. The events of the night had shaken him,
and Yung- wan had tried to beguile the time by telling in
his broken English some horrifying tales of the baleful
power of the nats of the mountains, and of the "beloos"
or demons of the wood — monsters with iron teeth and
nails, and eyes like live coals.

" Dere's nuffing to fear, Massa Tom," he said to Wilson,
whom he had taken under his special protection since

228 THE GEEAT SAPPHIKE.

the adventure at the falls. Tom's teeth were chattering
with cold, and Hannibal, whose own voice was quaking,
thought it his duty to inspire his youthful companion
with courage. " If one of dem ghosts come for us, he'll
have to go away pretty quick. Massa Doctah is not de
man to put up with nonsense from dese sort of folks, I
tell you."

" Oh bother !" said Tom peevishly. " Do you think I
am shaking for fear, like yourself, Han ? I declare if
these stories of Yung-wan's have not made your wool
stick on end. Why, man, it must have been some tiger
glaring at him from a thicket that he took for that pre-
posterous * beloo ' of his, and his nats were nothing more
or less than vapour, like that above the burning moun-
tain there. There's nothing to fear. Master Hannibal,"
he concluded, giving the worthy black a resounding slap
on the back.

Nevertheless the party were not in high spirits when
they began to climb the mountain, the exception being
the guide, who seemed to grow secretly more elated with
every yard of progress we made. The reader has heard
enough by this time of hill-climbing, and need not be
troubled with an account of this weary part of our day's
work. The sun blazed out ; and to make up for being
half-frozen over-night, we were now half -roasted. The
slopes were steep and rugged, and it was not easy to find
a way over the black and brown rocks, the heaps of

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 22»

scoriae and ashes, and the streams of cooled lava, marking
the track of some former overflow of superheated
materials from the burning pit in the bowels of the
mountain. Rough grass, ferns, and some other plants
grew in tufts, but hardly in sufficient quantity to help
us much in our ascent ; and a fine volcanic dust found
its way into our eyes, nostrils, and mouths, and almost
suffocated us. The sun had passed the meridian when we
halted on the top, in what seemed a sterile, blasted plain
strewn with ashes, cinders, and masses of black, fused
rock, like refuse from some vast furnace. In the centre
was a wide and deep depression, and approaching the
edge cautiously we peeped over into the abyss. It was
a great pit, of oblong shape, perhaps a mile in length
by a quarter of a mile in width, and surrounded by
nearly precipitous rocks, except on, the side opposite to
us, where there was a gap in the walls of the crater.
Once this void had belched up smoke and flame and red-
hot ashes, and the mountain had trembled with the
shocks and echoed with the din of the terrible struoffirle
within it ; but the silence of death and utter desolation
was now on the scene, and the gray gleam of water
five hundred feet below us showed that a lake occupied
the bottom of the vent.

We worked our way with much difficulty round to
the gap I have spoken of, and after a perilous descent
we stood on the margin of the lonely tarn. A stream

230 THE GREAT SAPPHIRE.

of water of a yellowish-red colour escaped from it, and
flowed through the cleft and down a gloomy ravine
beyond. We were now on the western side of the
mountain, and the guide confirmed by a nod the doctor's
opinion that this water must help to swell the flood of
the Salwen. So dark and sinister was the scene, the
-black and blasted crags hemmed us in so closely and
frowned on us so threateningly, that I could not help a
feeling of mysterious awe and almost terror stealing
over me, or wonder at the superstitious natives believing
that this was a place where the evil spirits had peculiar
power. We seemed utterly cut off from every other
living thing, in a spot which had more of the features
of the nether world than of the fair and sunshiny earth.
The dark lake before us looked as if it were never visited
even by the winds of heaven, though there was a kind
of troubled movement on its surface — probably indicating
the position of the springs — that made my flesh creep.
About three hundred yards from us, and close under one
of the cliffs, was a little island — a pinnacle of bare
rock rising a few feet above the surface. The water
must have been of profound depth, for on flinging in a
stone quite close to the margin, we noticed the bubbles
rising at the spot for nearly a minute.

As we were thus engaged we heard a splash close
by us, and found to our surprise that Yung-wan had
divested himself of his clothes, had plunged into the

THE GREAT SAPPHIRE. 281

lake, and was already swimming towards the island.
Breathless with wonder and suspense, we watched him
as he made his way to the rock. He did not remain
there long, turning almost at once to regain the shore.
It was not till he was within a few yards of us that
we observed that he was in a state of extreme distress.
With much trouble we succeeded in hauling him on
shore, where he immediately sank down exhausted.
He held out his right hand, which had been tightly
clenched, towards the doctor, and opening it, disclosed a
bluish-coloured pebble, in the form of a rough crystal.
More puzzled than ever, Dr. Eoland took it from him
and examined it, while we no less narrowly scanned our
chief's face. We saw breaking into it some of the
excitement which we had noticed for some days past in
our guide. He uttered an exclamation, and Yung- wan,
forgetting his prostration, started to his feet.

" Why," cried the doctor at length, " this is a sapphire,
and, I should think, one of the very finest and largest
in existence ! It must weigh five hundred carats at
least. The man who possesses this is a prince."

He handed us the gem to look at. It was larger
than a pigeon's egg — a crystal of six sides, terminating
at each end in a six-sided pyramid. A pale blue shone
through the roughened outer surface ; but there was a
chip on one of the sides, disclosing a lovely cerulean
tint, matching one of the softest and deepest shades of

232 THE GREAT SAPPHIRE.

the evening sky, and with a brilliancy of its own. It
was a gem of the "first water," only inferior to the
diamond itself in value ; and one could not look at it
without the heart beating with pleasure in its extreme
radiancy and beauty.

Dr. Roland handed the brilliant back to its owner ;
-but Yung- wan refused it, signifying that he meant it
as his offering of gratitude to his benefactor — the fee
for having had his life preserved. This, of course, the
doctor would not hear of ; and the guide was compelled
reluctantly to take the gem back again into his keeping.
He was now, if possible, more anxious to leave the lake
than he had been to reach it ; and sharing in his eager-
ness to escape from this forbidding place, we hastened
down the bank of the stream, and entered the defile,
amid the gathering shadows.

CHAPTEE XIX.

LOST.

OR some time we hastened on, hardly drawing
breath to exchange a word with each other,
as we slid or climbed over the blocks of
lava and basalt with which the bed of the stream was
paved. You would have said, had you seen us, that we
were fleeing in panic, with all the host of evil genii of
the mountains at our heels. And, in truth, we did feel
like those heroes of the old romances, when they had
borne away some potent ring or charm from an enchanted
castle, and knew that the incensed magician was busy
summoning his familiar spirits and working his wicked
spells in order to bring down trouble and disaster upon
them. It seemed as if a secret danger were brewing for
us up by that "uncanny "-looking lake, and that our safety
lay in getting quickly away from its lonely and desolate
shores. There were more substantial reasons for pushing
on, however. We had no desire to pass another night
high up the mountain ; and hunger was making impor-

234 LOST.

tunate calls upon us, which we had no hope of satisfying
in that cold, deserted region behind us.

We had at last to come to a halt ; for not only were
we exhausted by fasting and severe exertion, but the
darkness was gathering in so deeply that we could no
longer pick our way. We were fortunate enough to find
-some nuts and berries on the shrubs that again began to
line our path, — and still better, a cool, fresh spring of
water ; for we did not dare to drink the sulphury-
looking fluid by our side that ran down from the lake.
The pool also yielded a few " fresh- water oysters ;" so
that our meal, though not enough to appease our
ravenous appetite, was perhaps better than we had any
right to count upon.

We had now time to hear the guide's story of the
finding of the great sapphire, and Yung-wan, after
carefully reconnoitring the ground to see that there
were no listeners near, had no hesitation in satisfying
our curiosity, as far as his limited power of expression
in English and Chinese went. He told us that he
belonged to this part of the country, or rather to the
district on the eastern side of the mountain we had just
crossed. He had been engaged at the famous ruby and
sapphire mines of the King of Burmah, which lay some
distance to the westward of where we now were ; but
finding that any treasure he found was immediately
seized upon by the myrmidons of His Golden-footed

LOST. 235

Majesty, the " Proprietor of the Mines of Rubies, Gold,
and Silver," as he proudly styles himself, he left these
profitless diggings in disgust, and made his way towards
his home. Passing through the jungles near the mouth
of the stream we were now following — which he told
us fell into the Salwen little more than a day's journey
ahead — he fell upon a spot which his experience of
gem-workings told him was a likely place to find
precious stones. He set to work to sift the gravel and
sand with such tools as he could lay hands on, and ere
long he came upon several small rubies and topazes.
Thus encouraged, he went on secretly digging for several
days, until he was rewarded by turning up the magnifi-
cent gem which we had seen.

His first feeling was one of stupefaction, then extreme
elation, but lastly fear. How should he dispose of
this treasure, which might make him the greatest and
wealthiest man of his tribe, but was more likely to
bring him trouble, or perhaps death ? He dared not
return to Burmah. The English he did not at that
time know ; and, besides, the country of the Red
Karens, the sworn and deadly enemies of his race, lay
between them and him. On the other hand, Chinese
traders were in the habit of passing through his native
country, and he knew them to be great dealers in jewels
and stones of price. He resolved to make his way into
China, and there find a merchant for the great sapphire.

236 LOST.

But here also there were dangers to be encountered. The
frontiers were in the hands of lawless bands of robbers,
and there were rumours of insurrection having again
broken out. A single unarmed man like himself would
be certain to be plundered, and probably murdered. He
must hide his gem, and bring a merchant to it who
should have strength enough at his back to carry it off
in safety. Then he bethought him of the lake in the
crater. There could be no safer hiding-place ; for apart
from its secluded position, none of the natives of the dis-
trict would venture near the spot, out of terror for the
supernatural beings that were supposed to lurk there. In
fear and trembling he ascended to the haunted tarn, and
hid the sapphire in a cleft of the rocky islet in the
centre. Then he made his way to China, which he reached
almost naked, having been stripped by brigands of the
lesser gems he had brought away with him, and barely
escaping with his life. At the city of Yunnan-fu he
had found a merchant whom he had convinced of the
truth of his story. The scheme finally concocted was
that a trading-party should be organized, and should
start, as if proceeding by the usual direct trade route
to Mandalay, with Yung-wan as guide. When they
had reached the neighbourhood of these mountains, the
Shan would lead them to the place where the sapphire
was concealed ; and it was hoped that through his in-
fluence, and by the aid of bribes, his tribe would be

LOST. 237

engaged to form a strong convoy in carrying the gem
to China. In the party, as it turned out, was one of
the conspirators who were secretly engaged in stirring
up the Mohammedans to revolt, and this man, Yung- wan
suspected, had got an inkling of the true object of the
journey, and had betrayed them into the hands of his
ferocious leader, Khodja Akbar Khan. Had he not es-
caped, their intention, he believed, had been to spare his
life, and to induce him by torture, threats, and promises
to reveal the hiding-place of the sapphire. In Yung-wan's
opinion, the spies had never once taken their eyes off
him; and one of the first faces he noticed among the
party who surprised us at the ferry on the Mekong,
was that of his traitorous companion. Since our ap-
proach to the hiding-place of his treasure, and especially
after hearing the report that stragglers from the broken
rebel bands had been seen in the neighbourhood, his
suspicions of spies dogging his steps had redoubled.
Again on his knees, and almost with tears, he besought
the doctor to take the sapphire. He had not, he vowed,
once slept soundly or had a moment's ease of body or of
mind since the hour when its fatal beauty first gleamed
upon him like a star in the dark bosom of mother
earth.

Dr. Roland gently explained to him that it was out
of the question to accept such a gift at his hands.
" Besides," he added, with a smile, " if it has been such

238 LOST.

a burden on you, my friend, it is hardly an act of kind-
ness to wish to roll it over upon me. But I will tell
you what we will do. If you choose to guide us
thither, we will go with you to the spot where you
unearthed the sapphire. Who knows," he added, turn-
ing to us, " but we may each come away laden with
gems, as if we had come out of Aladdin's cavern."

To this the guide joyfully assented, telling us that
the place was only a few hours' march from our direct
route to the British border. Then we resigned our-
selves to sleep, after arranging to keep a strict watch
in turns during the night. Nothing happened to disturb
us, except that towards morning Hannibal roused us,
and declared with great earnestness that he had seen a
dusky shape watching us, and that it immediately dis-
appeared from sight.

" Saw um flop right down b'hind dat dar bush, sar,"
he insisted, wiping the cold sweat from his brow, with
his eyes rolling in his head ; but he could give no other
account of the apparition, except that it was as " big as
a bull " and had eyes " like live coals."

Tom thought we ought to " blaze away a bit " at the
shrub before approaching it, and I was inwardly of the
same opinion, but the doctor pointed, as one excellent
reason against "blazing away," that we had just one
rifle cartridge left. He stepped quietly up to the bush,
followed by the rest of us, when we found that though

LOST. 239

it loomed so big in the foggy light, it could not have
given cover to a catamount. We had a hearty laugh
at Hannibal, which was none the less loud because
he infected some of us with his half -superstitious fears,
and scathing were the sarcasms as to how his " bull " had
found shelter behind a few twigs of willow.

When day had fully broken, however, and our marclji
was resumed, we found that we had not wholly shaken
off the feeling of disquiet that had crept upon us from
the moment that the sapphire had come into our charge.
The scenery of the ravine through which we were
wending was weird and oppressive in the extreme.
The black, gaunt walls looked as if they had been
scathed with fire, and plant and animal life seemed to
be timorously venturing back into the valley after some
terrible catastrophe that had laid it waste. We met
with hot, bubbling sulphur springs ; little water-courses
that trickled down the rocks — the waters tinged with
white, green, purple stains, and exhaling powerful gases ;
and basins from which puffs of steam and jets of water
rose at regular intervals.

Yung-wan now told us, in an awe-stricken whisper,
something that added not a little to our sense of alarm.
On his last visit here, these snorting demons, as he
firmly believed them to be, had not been nearly so
active and violent. The stream that escaped from
the crater and ran down the gorge was then a mere

240 LOST.

dribblet ; now it ran in a powerful current, that rose
above mid-leg when we forded it, and we even fancied
that it was stronger both in smell and in force since
yesternight. But the most remarkable thing was what
he told us about the crater-lake. When he had dipped
into it on the occasion when he had concealed the
sapphire, the water had a pleasant, hardly sensible
warmth. On swimming to the island on this last visit,
he had crossed spots where water was welling up so
hot that he could scarcely bear it, and it was this that
had relaxed his powers and weakened his strength so
much that he was barely able to struggle back to the
margin. Even at the edge we had found the tempera-
ture to be somewhat more than tepid. We remembered
with dismay the signs of greater activity we had
noticed in the burning cone to the southward; and
from some words that the doctor let fall, we gathered
that an explosion of the volcano might occur at any
moment, though, on the other hand, it might linger on,
" getting up steam," for a month.

Was it the glamour of the great sapphire that made
us start and listen at every little sound we heard in
the jungle — the snapping of a twig, the rustling of a
branch, or the fall of a handful of earth from the rocks ?
We were more nervous and fearful in this forsaken dell
than we had been when surrounded by savages or
by bandits, or when plunging down the rapids of the

LOST. 241

Mekong. We "felt" danger rather than saw it, like
men who, in the darkness, know that some malign thing
is watching them, without being able to tell what or
where it is. And yet, apart from the faint noises I
have mentioned, and which may probably have been
caused by some deer, or monkey, or bird, absolutely
nothing disturbed the profound and deathly solitude.

The gorge widened a little as we advanced, leaving
room for stunted trees on both banks, but the pre-
cipitous walls continued as high as before. Our mid-
day rest was taken at a spot where the jungle began
to be more tall and dense. We were talking over our
plans in a less elated tone than might have been ex-
pected from people who had just " come into a fortune "
— which, perhaps, might be explained by the fact that
we had had nothinor to eat since the momiujor — when
the call of a bush-turkey was heard in the thicket not
far off, and it fell musically on the ear of hungry men.
Yung-wan, who was skilful in stalking this sort of
game, stole into the jungle, armed only with a stick,
and of course having his long knife stuck into his belt in
case of coming suddenly upon a tiger or a panther, while
we kept perfectly still in our places. After a pause the
call was repeated a little further off; and then another
interval of silence was startlingly broken by a loud
shriek for help. We sprang to our feet. We heard
sounds of scuffling, trampling, and breaking of branches,

(690) 16

242 LOST.

as if a terrible struggle were going on, and we dashed
through the thick undergrowth of thorns, the creepers,
and the air roots, in the direction of the noise. All
was quiet again when we reached the spot, except that
we could hear the sound of retreating footsteps already-
some distance off. But our thoughts were soon wholly
absorbed in an object on the ground. It was the
body of the guide, motionless and covered with blood.
The doctor bent over him, examined the wounds on
his back and chest, and felt his pulse. Then he
looked at us with an expression of face we under-
stood too well. Yung- wan was dead ! He had evi-
dently been surprised from behind, and a mortal wound
had been inflicted on him before he could defend him-
self; but he had had time before being overpowered
to draw his knife, which he still held firmly clenched
in his hand. He had not fallen alone, for a few
paces off we found another bloody and lifeless form
extended on the damp earth and leaves. It was that
of a swarthy man, of the Chinese type of features, but
wearing the white turban and other tokens of having
belonged to the army of rebel Panthays. The doctor
and Hannibal thought they had noticed his face in the
group that surrounded the insurgent leader on the
occasion of our capture ; but Tom and I had to admit
that the countenances of these people were so much alike
that we could scarcely distinguish one from another.

LOST. 243

We had no doubt, however, that this was the man about
whom poor Yung- wan had told us, who had joined him
in his first expedition and afterwards turned traitor ; and
we had not much difficulty in guessing who was the
accomplice who had escaped.

On searching, we found that Yung-wan's girdle, in
which, as we knew, the sapphire had been concealed,
had been rudely torn open. The gem was gone ! The
knowledge also of the mine of precious stones, from
which we had promised ourselves such untold wealth,
had perished with its discoverer; for who could now
guide us to the secret spot where he had found this
fatal treasure ? Little, however, did such reflections
trouble us at first. We thought of the faithful, devoted
fellow who had been our companion through so many
dangers and hardships — of his unfailing courage and
patience, his touching gratitude, and of the deep debt of
thanks that we owed him in return. It was with sad
and full hearts that we bore him to a cavity in the rocks,
in lieu of a better sepulture. Beside him we laid the
corpse of his assassin, and we rolled a large stone over
the hole as a defence against the vultures.

m

CHAPTER XX.

FOUND.

HEN the mournful duty was over, other ideas
took possession of our minds. Anger suc-
ceeded to sorrow. We were filled with
hot and fierce indignation against the cowardly villain
who had so treacherously murdered our cheerful and
kindly little guide, and we determined to track him down.
It was scarcely possible that he could have doubled
back without our seeing him ; and besides, his obvious
way of escape was down-stream. So we resumed our
route with fresh vigour, keeping a sharp look-out to
right and left for the fugitive. It seemed at first as if
he had eluded us ; but on reaching a more open part
of the defile we came upon signs that showed us that
we were in the right track, and gave us hopes that in
spite of his start we would soon come up with the
assassin. Drops of blood stained the stones — a proof
that the man we were pursuing had not come scathless
out of the struggle It was singular, and we could not

FOUND. 245

help remarking upon it even as we hurried on, that our
journey in unexplored lands should be ending as it had
begun, in a life-and-death chase through a rocky ravine.
But how different were the circumstances ! Then we
were fugitives, fleeing for our lives before a band of
naked savages ; now we were messengers of vengeance,
following hard on the steps of our wounded enemy.

By-and-by we came in sight of him labouring pain-
fully along over the boulders and through the brush-
wood in front. As we rapidly gained upon him, he
cast a glance at us over his shoulder like the glare of a
hunted tiger. It scarcely surprised us to recognize the
face of Kliodja Akbar ; and he appeared to know that
the fates had pronounced against him, for his dark
features were convulsed with impotent fury and hate.
At this part of the valley there was a spot where it
was just possible to climb up the crags to the level
above ; and his eye seemed to measure the distance
between us and him, in order to judge whether he had
time to avail himself of this loophole of escape. He
must have decided that he had not, for without pausing
he continued his flight down the valley.

We must now, according to what we had learned
from poor Yung-wan, be quite close to the Salwen,
which here, as throughout its course, flows in a confined
and narrow channel. Before entering the main river,
however, the small stream we had been following cast

246 FOUND.

itself over a steep cliff in a turbid waterfall. Above the
fall the crags hung higher and grimmer than ever ; while
aloft, fine forest trees, including the magnificent teak
for which this region is so famous, spread out their
branches almost over the cascade. Khodja Akbar, with a
lead now of little more than a hundred yards, crept along
the sides of the cliffs, until he reached a yawning gap,
close to the falling water, and crossed by a single tree-
trunk, which had to all appearance fallen accidentally
into this position from the forest above. He stepped
across with wavering steps, and then seizing the end of
the log, he strained all his force to hurl it from the
rock. At this moment, and several times before, the
doctor might, of course, have shot him dead ; but he
shrank from taking the life of a fellow-creature, even
one caught red-handed, in this way, and to expend
our last cartridge on the deed. The heavy trunk
would not be moved, and the fugitive turned again
for flight. We had approached within a few yards
of this natural bridge, when I felt the solid ground
tremble, and then heave like the deck of a ship
at sea. Thinking that a portion of the rock was
about to give way, I instinctively clung to the bushes
near me. There was a brief pause, and then a violent
shock, two or three times repeated, and to my confused
senses the crags about me seemed to rock and reel ;
large fragments detached themselves from the cliffs and

FOUND. 247

fell crashing to the bottom, and a loud splash announced
that a mass of ponderous size had fallen into the water
beneath, while a dull muffled sound like distant thunder
reached my ears.

All this may have occupied only a few moments, but
it appeared to me that at least a couple of minutes had
elapsed before I had collected my scattered wits, and
looked about me, dazed and giddy as if just recovering
from a stunning blow. The tragic events of the last
few hours — the assassination, the burial of the victim,
the pursuit of the murderer — had driven from our minds
all recollection of the danger that threatened us from
the awakening volcano behind us, and this earthquake
shock bewildered us at first by its unexpectedness.
Almost the first thing I. observed clearly was that an
impassable chasm now barred our advance — the tree
that crossed the chasm had been shaken from its place
and WELS floating in the pool beneath. A mocking laugh
from Akbar the Kashgaree, as he passed from sight
round a projecting crag, told us that he also perceived
that pursuit in this direction was hopeless.

There was nothing for it but to " hark back " to
the spot where, as I have before mentioned, the cliffs
seemed scalable. With infinite trouble the whole party
succeeded at last in reaching the summit of the rocks.
We found ourselves amid dense and lofty forests that
almost covered the country in front as far as our view

248 FOUND.

extended, heaving and sinking, according to the irregu-
larities of the surface, like a vast sea of green. The
teak tree, with its stately trunk and great pendulous
leaves, that have so often been compared to the ears of
an elephant, predominated ; but there were also many
varieties of palms and other plants of the tropics, beau-
tiful for their flowers or their foliage, or valuable for
the fruits, dyes, gums, drugs, and spices that they yield.
Within easy reach we descried the valley of the Salwen
lying like a deep trench across our way, just as we had
seen it in Thibet three or four hundred miles higher up,
when we had been slung across its restless waters on a
slim rope. Its banks now, instead of being naked and
gaunt, were clothed with dense verdure; but they looked
scarcely less savage. "We knew, however, that when we
had reached the farther shore we should have left the
limits of the absolutely unknown behind us, and that
a few comparatively easy stages more would bring us
among our fellow-countrymen, for whose homely faces
and voices and home-like ways we were longing with
an energy that only those who have sojourned like us
in far and savage countries can understand.

We followed as closely as we dared the edge of the
cliffs, occasionally peering over to see if any traces of
Akbar were to be detected in the gorge below. Unex-
pectedly we came in sight of him, resting on a rock not
far beneath the waterfall. The pain of his wound had

FOUND. 249

overcome him, or he had met with some obstacle in
front which he could not pass ; or perhaps he imagined
that he was now safe from farther pursuit. "We could
almost have dropped a pebble upon the spot where
he sat ; but he had evidently no suspicion that we were
so near to him.

As we leaned over the cliffs, discussing in low earnest
tones what means we should take to bring our enemy
to bay, a noise which we had heard for some minutes,
and taken for the distant roar of a waterfall, smote
more loudly on our ears. Every moment the volume of
sound increased, and it seemed to be approaching us
rapidly, and from the direction of the upper end of the
valley. As we listened, it swelled into angry, terrible
notes, that filled the air with foreboding and alarm. We
looked at one another, already half conjecturing the
truth before the doctor told us, by sign rather than by
word, that the earthquake must have rent wider the
gap in the mountain above, and that this must be the
escaping waters of the lake in the crater that were
hurrying towards us down the gorge. Khodja Akbar
also had heard the sound, and had started to his feet.
The fierce feeling of anger and desire for vengeance
which had inspired us during the last few hours seemed
to pass away when we saw the poor, wounded wretch
exposed to so appalling a doom. There was one parti-
cular part of the cliffs where, with our help from above.

250 * FOUND.

it was just possible for him to reach a place of safety.
We shouted to him at the highest pitch of our voices, and
eagerly signalled to him where he should go. He turned
towards us, but he could not or would not understand
our meaning. Perhaps it was already too late, for the
flooded stream was already thundering down the rocky
channel in ponderous brown masses. The doomed man
shrieked some words — a prayer or an imprecation —
which were lost in the noise of the torrent. He shook
his fist at us, and something gleamed an instant in his
hand. Was it the knife with which he had slain his
brother man ; or was it the great sapphire, for the sake
of which he had steeped his hand in innocent blood ?
I cannot tell ; for at that instant the main body of the
flood reared itself above the rocks at the fall, like a
chafed and angry lion, with a tawny mane of rushing
waters streaming behind it. Another moment, and it
had leaped down with a mighty roar on its solitary-
victim, and the body of Akbar was tumbling and toss-
ing amidst the wreck of uprooted trees and broken
reeds that were hurrying down to the " Valley of the
Shadow."

There is not much of the story of our journey left for
me to tell. We turned away horror-stricken from the
scene we had witnessed ; yet soon there came a feeling
of intense relief, for the constant strain of suspense and

FOUND. 251

suspicion that had weighed upon us so long as we were
under the shadow of the volcanoes, with the great
sapphire in our charge, and an unsleeping enemy near
us, was now removed. We reached the huts of a party
of teak-cutters and rafters, kindly people that entertained
us hospitably while we rested to recruit and to prepare for
resuming our journey. Some attempts we made convinced
us that it was hopeless to expect to discover poor Yung-
wan's sapphire-mine. After waiting until the flood had
abated, we proceeded down the swift Salwen for several
days on one of the timber-rafts that descend to the sea
even from this distance up the river. We had plenty
of dangerous experiences in shooting rapids and slipping
past rocks, but nothing that we were not by this time
well inured to. Then came vexing delays ; for there
were alarming rumours that a hostile tribe had formed
a stockade on the river, and the raftsmen would not
proceed until they were certain that the way was clear.
We determined to leave the stream, and, hiring a party
of guides and porters, proceed over-land to the border of
British Burmah, now close at hand.

On the third morning we were marching through a
jungly forest of " toddy palms" and bamboos, when the
alarm was given from the front that there was a tiger
in the path. Sure enough we found a great yellow
brute growling and snarling, on the opposite bank of a
marshy stream, over the body of a deer which he had

252 FOUND.

brought down, and was loath to leave. Dr. Roland
was about to fire — we had replenished our stock of
ammunition from our friends on the river — when the
sharp crack of a rifle resounded in the wood, and the
tiger rolled over, clawing and tearing up the ground
with his huge paws.

," You've done it this time, Sandy," said a hearty
voice in the beloved tongue of our native England.
" Right through the ear, too, as I am a living man."

" I think the shot might have been worse," said an-
other voice in slower and more deliberate tones, in which
might easily be detected the accents of one bom to the
north of the Tweed. " But what could the beast mean
by glowering across the burn in yon way ?"

Two stalwart figures, clad in half -military, half -sports-
man dress, with white " puggerees" and leggings, came up
to the spot where the tiger lay. Our surprise was nothing
to theirs when we hailed them in their own lano^uao^e.
And truly strange tatterdemalion figures we must have
seemed as we emerged with our native followers from
the brake, with our sunburned features, unkempt locks,
and ragged jackets. Our new friends were Lieutenants
Alexander M'Leod and Henry Verney, of the Royal
Engineers. They had been sent out on the duty of
marking off" the frontier between the Karen tribes and
the country claimed by independent Burmah, and having
completed their task, had set ofi" on a hunting trip

FOUND. 253

beyond the borders before returning to their station,
when good fortune cast them in our path. I will not
repeat what these kind officers said when they heard
the story of our adventures. I know they made Tom
and me blush till our faces tingled, with their praises of
what they were pleased to call our gallantry and forti-
tude, and shook our hands and slapped our backs with
their heavy palms until it needed all our fortitude to
prevent us from wincing. But we knew all the time —
and told them so, only they would pay no heed to us —
that we had really no credit for what had been done,
having merely done our best to obey orders, and that to
Dr. Roland, along with faithful Hannibal, the honour and
glory of the journey really belonged.

That night we slept under canvas, in a clean ham-
mock, after a warm and abimdant meal, thus suddenly
coming into the enjoyment of three comforts to which
we had long been strangers. This was nothing, how-
ever, to the delight of being again with friendly, hos-
pitable people of our own nation, and of hearing news
from home in our sweet mother tongue. We knew
that our trials were over, and that we had got back
again within the pale of civilized life, with the first
glimpse we got of Lieutenant M'Leod's red whiskers and
his companion's ruddy cheek.

A fortnight later we were in Rangoon, the capital
and chief port of British Burmah. I need not narrate

254 FOUND.

these later stages of our journey, which was through a
country pretty well known already. The sights of
Rangoon itself the reader will not thank me to describe,
for it is a place visited by hundreds of British ships
every year. To tell the truth, I have a very indifferent
remembrance of them ; for after our severe fatigue and
privation, the whole party suffered from reaction, and
for many days were hardly able to stir about. Our
first duty, of course, was to send a message to Mr. Mar-
shall and to our relatives at home, who, we found, had
long given us up as lost. It was settled that we should
not return to Assam, but proceed directly to England to
recruit from the effects of our sojourn among the grim
deserts of Thibet and the poisonous marshes of the
Mekong.

One morning we stood on the deck of the steamer at
the chief outlet of the Irrawady. We had bid good-bye
to all our kind friends in Rangoon, and were about to
set sail for " home." Tom and I were looking over the
bulwarks watching the smooth current of the noble
stream, covered with large and small craft, that we had
crossed when it was little more than a mountain torrent,
and the level green banks, with the roofs of pagodas,
churches, and villas rising above the trees, so strangely
in contrast to the wild and desolate scenes through
which we had seen it flow near its source. Dr. Roland
was close behind us, with Hannibal beside him, giving

FOUND. 255

the finishing touches to the packing of his master's
lue:f]:aore. The doctor cauo^ht the last remark — some-
thing that Tom or I had said half-seriously and half-
jocularly to the effect that, notwithstanding all the
weary miles our feet had trodden, and the untold wealth
we had had in our grasp, we were leaving these shores
empty-handed.

"Empty-handed!" he echoed. "What do you call
empty-handed ? That case that Hannibal is strapping
contains treasures worth — if the world only knew its
real value — all the gold-mines in Burmah. There are
specimens there that will make some of our men of
science open their eyes."

" If we could have brought away the sapphire, wouldn't
they have opened them wider still ?" Tom slyly ven-
tured to say.

"And even if you were empty-handed," the doctor
proceeded, without paying attention to the interruption,
"you are not empty-headed, or it is your own fault.
Think on the rare and beautiful things that Nature has
shown to you — the grand and mysterious secrets she
has trusted you with, as the reward for visiting her in
her solitude. Think of the knowledoje of stranore races
and lands and customs you have learned, not through
the medium of books or of teachers, but at first hand.
Above all, boys, I think the trials and dangers we have
come through together must have taught each one of us

256 FOUND.

priceless lessons that we shall not forget to our dying
day — lessons of faith and hope, of fortitude and manli-
ness, of mutual forbearance and patience and helpful-
ness. Our pioneering in Further India has made us a
few years older, but it has made us many years wiser."

Then the steam- whistle sounded, and our vessel got
under way for England.

THE END.

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